Word: gardner
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...poise under enemy fire. They tell stories of his rescuing a Green Beret from drowning, killing a Viet Cong sniper, and saving 42 Vietnamese civilians from starvation. To paraphrase Ernest Hemingway they claim that in combat Kerry exemplified ?grace under pressure.? But PCF-44 Gunner?s Mate Stephen M. Gardner-in a long telephone interview from his home in Clover, South Carolina-has a starkly different memory. ?Kerry was chickenshit,? he insists. ?Whenever a firefight started he always pulled up stakes and got the hell out of Dodge...
...When writing my book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (William Morrow & Company) I interviewed all of Kerry?s crewmates-all that is, except Gardner. They came from mid-size towns scattered across America including Kankakee, Illinois, and Ames, Iowa and Columbia, South Carolina. When first approached for interviews in late 2002 these Navy veterans told me they would enthusiastically campaign for their old skipper if he ever decided to run for president; they?ve lived up to their promise. Whether it?s PCF-94?s Chief Petty Officer Del Sandusky talking about Kerry?s undaunted courage...
...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...
...Gardner and senior Elana Miller split time in goal, making five and six saves respectively...