Word: gunners
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...have gushed about his 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...
...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...
...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...
Drawn from disparate backgrounds, the platoon's members provide a portrait of the military's diversity as well as insight into the motivations--and fears--of America's fighting forces. Its soldiers include Sergeant Marquette Whiteside, 24, an African-American gunner who pines for his 6year-old daughter; Specialist Sky Schermerhorn, 29, an idealist now gnawed by doubt about what he is fighting for; and Buxton, 32, a brainy Gulf War I veteran who since being deployed has taught himself Arabic and missed the birth of a son. Specialist Bernard Talimeliyor, 24, a native of the U.S. protectorate...
...Marquette Whiteside is standing up in the gunner's hatch, swinging his machine gun in the direction of the Iraqis who stop to watch as the Americans drive by. Poised atop the armored humvee, he looks almost carefree, a broad smile fixed to his face as he sings to himself and tosses children candy on this gray afternoon. But that buoyancy conceals vigilance. As a gunner, he has the job of scanning the roads and rooftops for ambushers. "I smile at everyone," he says, "but I'm constantly aware of my surroundings...