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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 3:53 am Post subject: Steve Gardner Article - Central Ohio Publications |
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The following article on Steve Gardner is being carried by the Newspaper Network of Central Ohio in several of it's affiliate publications. Note the quote on "Kerry in Cambodia" by Brendon Cull. No doubt they hope to obfuscate the issue for the duration of the campaign.
| Quote: | Port Clinton native served with Kerry, calls Viet claims 'deceitful'
By SARAH WILLIAMS
Staff writer
Port Clinton News Herald
Saturday, October 9, 2004
Of the Swift boat veterans, a Port Clinton native says he served the most time in Vietnam with presidential candidate John Kerry.
Steve Gardner, a native of Port Clinton and a Port Clinton High School graduate, appears alone in one of the organization's six ads. The ad was released Aug. 26 and is titled "Gunner."
The 56-year-old was a member of the U.S. Navy from 1965 to 1969, serving two tours during Vietnam as a 3rd class gunnersmate. His first tour lasted from February 1966 through February 1967, and the second from early 1968 to January 1969.
It was during his second tour that he met and served under Kerry, he said. Gardner said he served two months and 14 days with Kerry, who served a total of four months and 14 days.
For his service, Kerry was awarded a Silver Star -- the Navy's fifth highest medal -- a Bronze Star with Combat V, and three Purple Hearts, which were awarded for wounds received in com-
bat, according to www.johnkerry.com. Kerry received the Bronze Star for rescuing a Green Beret who had gone overboard during a mission, the site shows.
Gardner said he became involved with Swift Vets after the writer of "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and The Vietnam War" contacted him. Because Gardner started "finding inconsistencies in the book involved with me," he began calling every newspaper and radio station he could, trying to get the word out.
According to www.swiftvets.com, the organization -- Swift Vets and POWs for Truth -- is a tax-exempt, nonpartisan public advocacy "527" organization that consists of former military officers and enlisted men who served in Vietnam on U.S. Navy "Swift boats" or in affiliated commands, as well as former prisoners of war and their families.
In the ad featuring him, Gardner says Kerry "hasn't been honest, he has been deceitful." Kerry never spent Christmas in Cambodia, and he wasn't there in December or January, Gardner said.
"We were never there -- period. Any time John Kerry wants to call me a liar, he can take me to court immediately," Gardner said during an interview Friday. "If I were telling untruths about John Kerry, what do you think a truthful, honest man would do? (I would) be in court or in jail. But there's been no suit brought against me."
"... (If there was), he would have to give up the info, and that's something he doesn't want to do because he knows he's a liar."
Kerry's quotes regarding Cambodia are posted on the Swift Vets' Web site, including a 1979 article in the Boston Herald, a 1986 speech pulled from the Congressional Record during which Kerry spoke in opposition to President Reagan's policy in Central America, a 1992 article by the Associated Press, and the "lie" was mentioned in an article appearing in U.S. News and World Report in 2000. A book, "Unfit for Command," by John O'Neill and Dr. Jerome Corsi outlines the "impossibility" of Kerry's story, the Swift Vets' site shows.
Gardner said Kerry has since retracted the statement that he was in Cambodia for Christmas 1968. But Brendon Cull, a spokesman for the Democratic campaign in Ohio, said he has done no such thing.
"... There's no border sign that says exactly when you cross into a country -- you're in a creek or swamp," Cull said. "There's no exit that says, 'Welcome to Cambodia.' They were either in or very close to the border there."
Gardner and the other Swift Vets also claim that Kerry received his first and third Purple Heart medals -- which combined with the second qualified Kerry to be sent home -- because of self-inflicted wounds. Gardner also said Kerry produced a fraudulent report outlining an incident that occurred in a Viet Cong stronghold during which Gardner shot a man and young boy. Gardner says the incident occurred because Kerry, who was supposed to be watching the radar, failed to see a boat that had gotten within 30 yards of the Swift boat.
Numerous additional allegations appear on the Web site.
"This is an absolute disgrace, what they've done," Cull said of the Swift boat veterans' allegations. "They are spreading distortions and untruths in an attempt to smear John Kerry's honorable record of service to his country. Their advertisements are chock full of misleading statements and falsehoods. That kind of rhetoric, there's no place for it in American politics."
"... This is a smear campaign by the Swift boat veterans for (President George W.) Bush -- that's what they should be called."
Gardner however, said he's not a Republican or necessarily a Bush supporter.
"I never voted for Bush," he said. "I voted for his dad, but I've voted Democratic just as much as I've voted Republican. ... I'm addressing the very character of the individual who thinks he can be the next commander in chief. And that's absolutely absurd."
Gardner currently lives in Clover, S.C. After returning from Vietnam in 1969, he moved to Oak Harbor where he had a farm until 1985. He then lived in Catawba until 1988 and moved to Burlington, N.C., when the economy "got really tight." He lived in Burlington for 10 years, then moved to Clover.
For the past 16 years, he has been general manager for "a couple different boat stores and companies" and has now opened his own marine adjusting and survey business called Marine Solutions.
He has been married to wife, Marsha, for 21 years.
Gardner said he will likely be making stops in Cincinnati, Columbus, Toledo and possibly Youngstown in the next couple (sic) weeks to share his message.
Port Clinton News Herald
The News-Messenger - Fremont
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Last edited by Me#1You#10 on Sun Oct 10, 2004 5:51 pm; edited 2 times in total |
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concernedgranny
Seaman
Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:01 am Post subject: |
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Congratulations. Boy we really need everything here right now. The dems are pushing ads almost every other commercial. Hope it makes it here to central Ohio somehow. Let me know what I can do to help. This is kind of new to me but am willing to do what ever we have to do.
BTW there is an ad about Kerry's friend that was killed, Droz or something like that and it shows his widow and she says that Kerry is such
an honorable and that her husband would be turning in his grave if he knew how the veterans were treating him. |
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concernedgranny
Seaman
Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:04 am Post subject: |
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| The ad was just on again. That's about 4 times tonight. It's sponsored by Kerry/Edwards 2004. She also says this election is about the times now, not about something 35 years ago. |
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Stevie
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 1451
Location: Queen Creek, Arizona
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 6:17 am Post subject: |
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| concernedgranny wrote: | Congratulations. Boy we really need everything here right now. The dems are pushing ads almost every other commercial. Hope it makes it here to central Ohio somehow. Let me know what I can do to help. This is kind of new to me but am willing to do what ever we have to do.
BTW there is an ad about Kerry's friend that was killed, Droz or something like that and it shows his widow and she says that Kerry is such
an honorable and that her husband would be turning in his grave if he knew how the veterans were treating him. |
you could send a letter to the editor (local paper / email);
print out info from this site and pass out to your friends and nieghbors... etc.
_________________
Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged. |
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concernedgranny
Seaman
Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 162
Location: Ohio
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 4:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Been doing that. I have also sent in several letters to the editor and without print. They are giving a cut-off date of Oct. 20 to be printed before the election. Mostly idiots spouting off for Kerry in this paper. I live outside the city limits, but the mayor here is a Democrat. He got Kerry to come here in September. They took down all the Bush/Cheney signs. Most had been being stolen before that. When I went to get mine at the RHQ, they had a list of 4,000 people that needed signs but they couldn't get them in.We have a big ex-congressman democrat that during Clinton's election, got to use him at the convention for Ohio to put Clinton over the top. He's a nice guy and probably doesn't even like Kerry, but the area votes mainly for him. |
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Tom Poole
Vice Admiral
Joined: 07 Aug 2004
Posts: 914
Location: America
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| Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2004 5:11 pm Post subject: |
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| Cull wrote: | | ...There's no border sign that says exactly when you cross into a country... |
Notice he said "a country" and avoided saying Cambodia. Maybe we have no signs in America, but I thought I read somewhere that a large vessel of some kind was posted at the Cambodian border, with cables and signs. IMO, he lied again or is simply uninformed. Perhaps Kerry sneaked across via some secret creek or tributary that no one knew about.
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'58 Airedale HMR(L)-261 VMO-2 |
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Tobette
Lt.Jg.
Joined: 31 Aug 2004
Posts: 124
Location: Illinois
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| Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 4:32 am Post subject: |
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| concernedgranny, your area sounds identical to what's happening in mine. I sent an editorial to our local paper today commending them for their eye-opening cartoon depicting Kerry in bed with the UN and Saddam. My local paper has a conservative editorial staff but they print both liberal and conservative write-in editorials, thank God. Or Local Democrats run the county and nobody will cross them! It's pathetic. |
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ATACKM
Lt.Jg.
Joined: 22 Jul 2004
Posts: 145
Location: Detroit Mi.
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| Posted: Mon Oct 11, 2004 7:59 am Post subject: |
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| Tom Poole wrote: | | Cull wrote: | | ...There's no border sign that says exactly when you cross into a country... |
Notice he said "a country" and avoided saying Cambodia. Maybe we have no signs in America, but I thought I read somewhere that a large vessel of some kind was posted at the Cambodian border, with cables and signs. IMO, he lied again or is simply uninformed. Perhaps Kerry sneaked across via some secret creek or tributary that no one knew about. |
Maybe he had the Air Cav lift the boat, then drop it into a river inside Cambodia! "I love the smell of ******** in the media" "It smells like......John Forbes Kerry"
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ATACKM
Gulf War Veteran
Proud American
http://www.buglesacrossamerica.org |
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