Last surviving member of PT-157..........died???

According to the National Vietnam Veterans Foundation, four out of five people who claimed to have served in Vietnam didn't actually serve there. 

A 2009 article in the New York Times says that in that year, the Associated Press found that the VA was, "paying disability benefits to 286 supposed prisoners of war from the Persian Gulf war of 1991 and to 966 supposed prisoners of the Vietnam War. But Defense Department records show that only 21 prisoners of war returned from the gulf war, and that fewer than 600 are alive from the Vietnam War."

Also, the Marine Corps Times found 40 erroneous profiles in 2009’s Marine Corps Association Directory, including false claims of 16 Medals of Honor, 16 Navy Crosses and 8 Silver Stars.

So, I go from these sobering statistics to making my own claims about military honors. Well, they're not really MY military honors. I was a mediocre-at-best intelligence officer in the Air Force. No, the military honors I'm referring to are my grandfather's. Last year, I posted an article he wrote about his experiences during World War II and his role in picking up the survivors of the PT-109. My grandfather later took part in JFK's Presidential campaign in 1960. Here he is sitting with then-Senator Kennedy at a campaign event in Michigan:

90% of kids aged 18-25 probably think my picture with Adam Sandler is cooler than this one. That's pretty sad.

Grandpa took part in a portion of Kennedy's whistle stop tour, where JFK made brief stops at small towns to give stump speeches. Grandpa recently told me that at most of those stops, a gentleman would always come up to the Senator after the speech saying, "Hey, Mr. Kennedy, I served with you in the Pacific! I was part of the crew that rescued you when your boat sank!" Kennedy would immediately look to my grandpa and say, "you know this guy?" to which he always replied, "Nope. I've never seen him before." In his article, grandpa says that, "during the Presidential campaign in 1960 Kennedy made the remark to me, 'Lieb, if I get all the votes from the people who claim to have been on your boat that night of the pickup, I'll win easily.'"

Today, people still claim to have "rescued the President" back in 1943. Consider the case of the late Jack Gardo, from Greenville, South Carolina.

Mr. Gardo's hometown newspaper did a long article about him on the 50th anniversary of Kennedy's assassination last November. In the article, he claims to be, "the last surviving member of PT 157, the boat that rescued Kennedy." The article quotes Gardo's daughter saying that "on the anniversary of Kennedy’s death, he gets emotional about it."

Shortly after that article was published, Mr. Gardo passed away. His Obituary talks about his role in rescuing the future President. The Huffington Post picked up an Associated Press story about his death. As did the Charlotte Observer, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, NY Daily News, Portland Press Herald, and several smaller newspapers around the country. Local TV stations jumped on the story as well. So did Fox News and PBS News. The news even went worldwide. English language newspapers from Japan to Nigeria carried the news of Mr. Gardo's death.

A few days later, Mr. Bridge Carney--a gentleman who has interviewed my grandfather numerous times about his service--contacted the reporter who originally broke the story about Gardo's death and informed him that Jack Gardo did not even enlist in the US Navy until late August 1943 (a couple weeks after the PT-109 incident). Mr Gardo did serve with PTs in Kennedy's squadron and apparently did serve some time on the PT-157. This is where he heard the stories of the rescue and took them home as his own.

The reporter wrote a retraction and it came out in the AP a few days later, but it received much less coverage. I had to dig for it, but found it in San Jose' and Santa Cruz's local news. In other words, the internet is apparently full of lies. I naively believed you could trust everything you read on here.

The reporter actually visited Mr. Gardo's widow after he uncovered the truth. He showed the widow that her husband's claims of having been on the PT-157 on August 7, 1943 were obviously not possible. The widow cried.

I do have some satisfaction that Mr. Gardo's family knows the truth, but I also feel bad about it. You know what I mean? He's probably told the story of how he rescued the President countless times. His family would have felt a great deal of pride in the man's actions during the war--as much as I feel in my Grandfather. He most likely inspired family and friends to be better people, as Grandpa inspires me. But did his fabricated story help him with his business? Did he make more connections and earn more money because of the lie?

Ted Robinson is making money off the story. Ever heard of Ted Robinson? I hadn't either, but the NBC affiliate in Sacramento did a long article about him last November. He also claims to have rescued Kennedy--from the article, you'd think he did it single-handedly. The article makes several claims about Mr. Robinson, "the pauper who saved a president." Yet, many of the details about the circumstances leading up to the sinking of the PT 109 are completely wrong in the article, according to every official account, including my grandfather's. The details about the rescue are even more ridiculous. "The unit commander asked Robinson to go in and rescue [the PT-109 crew]," according to his interview. In fact, according to Naval Archives, Mr. Robinson did not serve on board the PT-157, or even in the South Pacific theater, during that rescue. He served on the PT-108, but not until late August, after the PT-109 incident and after my grandfather was reassigned to England.

Bridge Carney called up Mr. Robinson and concluded that, "he is a hard headed SOB." Robinson insisted that he was part of the rescue. Yet when questioned again, my grandfather and another survivor from the PT-157 (Welford West, he passed away earlier this year) did not remember him at all. So, Mr. Carney called Robinson back, told him he was not in the ship's logs and no one remembered him being there. He demanded to be put in contact with my grandfather. Grandpa spoke on the phone with him and told him he didn't remember him--my grandfather has an excellent memory. Robinson kept pressing grandpa until he finally said, "well, if you say you were there then so be it."

My grandfather's admission satisfied Robinson enough, and he continued marketing his book, Water in my Veins. The book details his Naval service and close relationship with the President. I gave the book a bad review on Amazon. I know it's a futile, petty gesture but it made me happier.

The thing is, both Gardo and Robinson likely had perfectly fine Navy careers. They didn't "rescue the future President" but they did their jobs. They were honorably discharged. They were part of America's greatest generation, serving in combat far from home. Why did they feel the need to embellish their part in the war? All it does is diminish the truth and take away from the men who were really there.

Here's the actual crew of the PT-157. Grandpa's in the middle, wearing shorts.

Here's a picture of grandpa and Welford West (seated) last year at a book signing. They're with my grandmother (far left) and Betty Lynn, who played the role of 'Thelma Lou' on The Andy Griffith Show. She lives in their rest home in North Carolina. She also took part in USO tours in the South Pacific during the war to boost morale.

When asked if they'd rather be pictured with Adam Sandler or Betty Lynn, 99% of seniors said, "Adam Who???"

And here's grammy and grandpa with Grace and my sister's two boys last month:

Inspiring future generations

So anyway, did I mention I went through basic training and freshman year with one of our NASA Astronaut candidates, T. Nick Hague?? I saved his life from a ravenous pack of wolves!!! True story. I'm writing a book about it.