My name is John Grant Jardine, and I’m a Vietnam Veteran.

My father, John Robert Jardine, served in WWII as a gunner’s mate on a tin can. Uncle Bill was in the Army during WW2. My dad didn’t elaborate a lot on his time in the Navy. I do know that he was in some major battles and shot it out with a Kamakize pilot one morning.

Before I joined the Navy I worked as a ranch hand for various ranchers in the Hames Valley area of Southern Monterey County, CA. I was in the U.S. Navy and attached to VF-213 and worked as a Plane Captain for F-4 Phantom jets on the flight deck of the Kitty Hawk, Gulf of Tonkin along the coast of Vietnam from 1968 to 1969. I remember making the trip from the flight deck to the sea one night, about 70 feet down. Thank God we were anchored in the bay near Sasebo, Japan at the time. It is amazing what a load of booze and being 19 at the time will get you to do on a dare! The Shore Patrol wasn’t impressed when they pulled me out of the water, and my CO wasn’t too impressed either…

Since I was discharged in June of 1974, I have worked in Law Enforcement in some fashion or another and will soon be retiring from FT Hunter Liggett Police Department in March 2015. I believe that my acute startle response is related to my many years having served in law enforcement. I don’t think it is related to my years in service.

My son, Grant, also served and was in the Army during the Gulf War. Thankfully, he never had to deploy into harms way.
~John Jardine, Vietnam Veteran

We are grateful to John for sharing his service with Comes A Soldier’s Whisper, where we are all connected.
God Bless all who serve and keep us safe.

AUTHOR’S BOOKS: www.amazon.com/Vietnam-Beyond-Reflections-Jenny-S…/…/

Veteran Tributes: www.facebook.com/ComesASoldierswhisper

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