Word: vietnamize
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...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...
...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...
...Illinois and was then sent to Swift boat school at Coronado, California, the same place where Kerry trained in August-October 1968. From there-in late 1965-Gardner was sent off to Subic Bay in the Philippines where he helped load Swift boats onto an LST and headed to Vietnam...
...remember combat exactly the same way so Kerry has been extremely lucky that 9 out of his 10 crewmen have almost identical stories about his valor during various firefights and skirmishes. But memories can vary from person to person; Gardner insists that the Kerry he knew in Vietnam was a singularly un-heroic figure. He dismisses the glowing eyewitness accounts of his crewmates Jim Wasser (Radarman), Bill Zaladonis (Petty Officer), Drew Whitlow (Boatswain?s Mate) and Stephen Hatch (Boatswain?s Mate) as bunk. ?Kerry sat some of them down and convinced them to buy into his side of what happened...
...hardnosed Gardner returned from Vietnam in February 1969; Kerry came home a month later. The two men haven?t spoken in nearly 35 years. Kerry has no recollection of any of Gardner?s accusations, including the threatening of a court martial. None of PCF-44?s crew trusts Gardner?s memory. Today Gardner claims he works at Millennium Services (an insurance inspection company) and is bitter about Kerry?s national prominence. At various times in our interview he complained about Kerry ?running around with Hanoi Jane? after the war and having a ?rich wife.? And-like Limbaugh-he is determined...