Word: gardner
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...under Kerry on PCF-44, proved particularly elusive. Eventually I located him in Niagra Falls, New York and he told me about his admiration for Chuck Berry guitar licks, rose tattoos and John Kerry. As my book went to press the only Swift crewmate I couldn?t locate was Gardner. A quick count in the index of Tour of Duty shows that Gardner?s name appears on a dozen different pages throughout my narrative. He also periodically appeared in Kerry?s war diaries. Still, my various inquiries to the U.S. Naval Historical Center, the Swift Boat Crew Directory and other...
...with a sense of genuine relief when PCF-44?s Jim Wasser telephoned me last week with the news that Gardner had ?rung him up out-of-the-blue? to discuss their shared days together in Vietnam. ?It was great? Wasser told me. ?You know he fought bravely in Vietnam. He is still a brother. I miss him. I would like to see him.? He then hesitated and went on. ?But he has developed a strange, negative assessment of Lieutenant Kerry. It shocked me. His memory is dead wrong. He remembers things so differently.? He has some kind of weird...
...This was unexpected news. In Tour of Duty I portrayed the crew of PCF-44 as a true Band of Brothers-it turns out they were a Band of Brothers minus one. A disappointed Wasser gave me Gardner?s telephone numbers, reminding me that PCF-44 gunner?s mate was nicknamed ?The Wild Man? by his crewmates for his hair-trigger penchant for firing M-60s into the mangrove thicket. ?Let me know what you find out,? Wasser told me. ?I?m having trouble understanding where he?s coming from...
...After interviewing Gardner for over an hour it essentially boils down to one word: politics. A strong supporter of President George W. Bush, Gardner is sickened by the idea of Kerry as president. ?Anybody but Kerry,? he says. ?I know what a disaster he?d be.? So what brought Gardner out in the open? The answer turns out to be Rush Limbaugh?s talk show...
...Around the time of the South Carolina primary, Gardner heard Limbaugh say there was something fishy about Kerry?s Vietnam service but he couldn?t quite put his finger on it. ?I was driving down the road, and I hit that [radio] button and Rush was talking about Kerry and his campaign and how something just didn?t feel right to him,? Gardner recalled, his voice full of conviction. ?Something about what John Kerry did or was doing, just really didn?t set right with him. And you know I served with this guy, and the bottom line...