GARDNER, GLENN VIRGIL

Name: Glenn Virgil Gardner
Rank/Branch: E2/US Army
Unit: Company B, 4th Battalion, 12th Infantry, 99th Light Infantry Brigade
Date of Birth: 14 August 1947 (Sanger CA)
Home City of Record: San Bernardino CA
Date of Loss: 25 November 1966
Country of Loss: South Vietnam/Over Water
Loss Coordinates: 072730N 1052612E (WP482244)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 5
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: water
Refno: 0528
Other Personnel In Incident: (none missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 October 1990 from one or more
of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS: JUMPED OVERBOARD
CACCF: Non-hostile, died of other causes, SUICIDE

SYNOPSIS: Private Glenn Gardner was a member of Company B, 4th Battalion,
12th Infantry, 99th LIB. He was a passenger on troop carrier USNS Daniel I.
Salton en route to Vietnam when he jumped overboard and drowned.

On several occasions, Gardner had threatened to take his life, and to jump
overboard. On this day, he was last seen at 1730 hours, and was reported
missing at approximately 1800 hours following a roll call in which he did
not respond. A search was mounted immediately and continued through the
night until 1000 hours the next day with no results. Gardner was presumed
dead, and it was determined his body could not be recovered.

The Vietnam War touched many lives. Tens of thousands of families lost loved
ones in battle deaths. Tens of thousands saw their sons and brothers come
home maimed physically and mentally from the wounds and torments of the
savagry of war. Some received telegrams that their loved ones drowned in
recreation; a few learned their sons died from drug overdose; and some
learned their sons, for unknown reasons chose to end their lives in Vietnam.

As long as man has been, war has been. As a society, we tend to bury the
unpleasant aspects of war and concentrate on the victory. In Vietnam, we
have only a hollow "Peace with Honor" and must instead, focus on the
warriors - men who willingly served their country when called. Men whose
lives we used as the price for our freedom.

The most tragic of all the warriors are those who still wait, captive and
abandoned by their country in prisons and camps in Southeast Asia. In
abandoning them, we have made the deaths and suffering of thousands a
frivolous waste. We must never neglect the duty we have to the men who must
someday answer their country's call.