Word: gardner
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...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...
...Gardner was born on January 3, 1948 in Portsmouth, Ohio. His family moved to the Lake Erie shore town of Port Clinton, Ohio when he was seven or eight years old. Shortly after his seventeenth birthday he enlisted in the U.S. Navy. ?My dad was in the navy, so I wasn?t gonna be an army ?ground pounder,?? he recalled. ?I really liked boats and hunting. Shooting things.? He attended gunnery school at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Waukegan, Illinois and was then sent to Swift boat school at Coronado, California, the same place where Kerry trained...
...Over the next three years Gardner served as gunner on four different Swift boats, each with a different commanding officer. His least favorite was his last: Lieutenant (j.g.) John F. Kerry of PCF-44. When describing Kerry he unloads choice adjectives, ?opportunist? being his favorite. His most colorful phrase is claiming that all Kerry wanted to do was ?save his lily-white ass.? Up until now he has kept his resentment mostly to himself. ?I?ve told a few of my friends that he was an asshole,? Gardner says. ?But I?m not looking to make news...