"With some reluctance, he related that fateful day, Thursday, the 13th, April 1967 in Vietnam as follows: 'I heard this thing explode and could feel the shock hit me. It lifted me up in the air eight to 10 feet. The first thing I could remember thinking was: Damn, I've stepped on a mine. I wasn't worried because I could tell immediately it didn't hit any place where it could kill me. . . Then I thought What if I should come down on another one? I had eight or so schrapnel wounds in both legs and some in my back. Most of them were small. The largest which hit me in the right calf was the size of a fingernail. It was a mountainous jungle area where it happened. We had walked in, and it was necessary for me to walk two miles to the nearest road so I could be evacuated. The wounds didn't bother me at the time. They burned a little. But after I got in the truck and sat down, I stiffened up completely. I didn't become ambulatory for over six weeks. I started limping around on the hospital ship. . . If everything went well I would be back for spring training for the 1968 season.'" - By Ron Coons in the Louisville Courier-Journal (07/16/1972, "Charleston's Goggin puts the hustle back in baseball: Even Vietnam shrapnel couldn't stop IL's 'little' big man")