A serviceman from Rossford found a friendly face after he was wounded in action earlier this month.
On Nov. 3, Capt. Chad Marzec of the 7-17 Cavalry, was piloting a KIOWA helicopter in Kunar Province in
eastern Afghanistan.
The mission, Marzec, the son of Dennis and Diana Marzec, said in a recent telephone interview, was to
provide air support for a small contingent of American soldiers who were heading through a valley on
their way to meet with village elders. Sometimes those engagements involve bringing in humanitarian aid,
sometimes just talk, Marzec said.
Marzec said he knew that the danger would come when the troops left the meeting. By then insurgents would
have been notified of their presence.
Keeping watch is a difficult job, he said. "There’s so much terrain to search."
As the platoon emerged, Marzec was in radio contact with the troops on the ground when suddenly all of
them hit the deck.
Marzec and his crew started to try to find where the fire was coming from. It was then that he took a
round in his lower left leg.
His co-pilot took over and they continued to suppress the fire from insurgents while they waited for
another copter to relieve them.
Marzec was taken for first aid to Jalalabad, before he was brought for treatment to Bagram Airfield.
There he met an orthopedic surgeon wearing an Ohio State hat.
Goeke chatted with Marzec as he removed the gauze, and they soon discovered they both grew up in
Rossford.
Major Brad Goeke, the son of Richard and Sylvia Goeke, is a surgeon stationed at the base and in his
sixth year of a nine-year commitment to the Air Force.
"He took great care of me," Marzec said.
Just "to see a face from my hometown relieves some of the stress," he said.
Goeke’s care went beyond medical help. He gave Marzec a bag of candy and made sure he had access to a
telephone.
Goeke and Marzec didn’t know each other. Goeke, a 1990 graduate of Rossford High, is 10 years older than
Marzec, a 2001 graduate of St. Francis de Sales in Toledo.
Both went on to military academies after high school – Goeke to the Air Force Academy and Marzec to West
Point.
During his time in the military, the orthopedic surgeon has served in Korea and Iraq as well as
Afghanistan, according to his parents.
He patched up Marzec, so he could be transferred to a military hospital in Germany before returning
stateside.
Marzec is now home in Tennessee, where he is stationed at Fort Campbell and lives with his wife Alisa
(Meyers) Marzec.
The round took out about 60 percent of his Achilles tendon and inflicted a fracture, he said. Doctors
said they expect him to make a full recovery. He will be wearing a cast for six months before starting
physical therapy.