Steve Gardner, U.S. Navy (Ret.) with his wife in South Carolina.

Remember Steve Gardner, U.S. Navy (Ret.), and his testimony for the Swiftboats concerning memories that Kerry wrote were "seared" in his mind during his Vietnam tour of duty, then sort of said it really wasn't exactly like that?

As the Swiftboats were being formed, Steve reports he received a phone call from a member of Kerry's campaign, asking him to stand on the stage with Kerry. When Steve replied he could never endorse John Kerry for anything, he reports the caller on the other end turned nasty, saying to him, "You better watch your step. We can look into your finances."

While Kerry was running around during the campaign revving up his huge recreational powerboat, complaining about American's use of oil, Gardner suddenly found himself terminated from his insurance supervisor position at Millennium Information Services via an e-mail sent two days after he had received the phone call from the Kerry campaign. The electronic communication advised him that his position had been eliminated.

But it wouldn't be long before Gardner would discover that was not true, as his former company advertised for a candidate to fill the same terminated position.

We would hope SHRM would forward the proper and accepted procedures to Millennium's HR Department about firing employees. Millennium's senior management proves what we guessed all along; that golden HR guidelines are easily tossed in the garbage when company leadership wants to make contrary business decisions.

Millennium's Web site's mission statement seems an oxymoron at best to the way Gardner says he was handled: "The company will fulfill its mission through productive use of technology, exceptional customer service, competitive value-added products and services and a clear focus on the best interests of our customers, business partners, and employees."

One would think that Steve Pietrzak, Millennium's reported President and CEO, would be proud to have American heroes like Steve Gardner on his staff, as many American corporations do today. If Millennium had, they would be in good company with corporations like Wal-Mart, Sears, and the Home Depot, to mention a few.

These major corporations have programs that award service people coming out of harm's way from the military, never wanting to penalize them as Millennium had done to Gardner.

Gardner says he lost his job for telling it like it was. He simply wanted to inform the people of the United States about Kerry's real activity in Nam.

We would think Millennium's corporate character might be questioned by potential customers through Millennium's handling of the firing of an employee that was not only in their hire for two years, but one who was a decorated Vietnam vet.

Of course, Mr. Pietrzak can simply admit the pressure that was put upon his company by outside forces like those created by Moveon.org and others. We would understand and applaud him. At least that's what Staples did after pressure was put on them from angry customers.

If you remember, Moveon.org pushed Staples to no longer advertise its products on a conservative television media outlet, which had run documentation on Kerry's activities in Nam. Staples caved and so did Millennium, but Staples figured it had more to lose by mocking decorated Americans and backed away. Staples later said Moveon.org got it all wrong.

We hope that the corporate suits at Millennium come to their senses and welcome Gardner back into the fold. Anything less challenges the future creditability of their company.

You can read the Chicago Sun-Times article on Gardner's payback for his reporting on Kerry's activities during the Vietnam War. The article is titled "How Kerry whistleblower suffered for truth."

You can also read the opinions of Americans to Kerry's character on Powerlineblog, the central article titled "What ever happened to Steve Gardner?"

Hud's Blog-O-Rama's title on Gardner's problems says it all about how many Americans must feel about the way Senator Kerry treated this decorated Navy Vet for exposing dishonor in Vietnam. The Web site article title reads "John Kerry: Vindictive Bastard."

Gardner, the father of three, is now broke, bankrupt, and unemployed thanks to his reporting what happened on those canals in Vietnam. Nonetheless, Gardner says he'd speak against Kerry all over again because, "I couldn't ever see [Kerry] as commander in chief . . . not after what I saw in Vietnam, not after the lies I heard him tell about what he says he did and what he says others did."

The Patrick Henry Center is now financially assisting Gardner's family through a direct-mail campaign. If you did not receive their request, you can still contributed by sending a check to:

As a side note from your Webmaster.

My father was a Navy survivor of Okinawa in WWII, and he never talked about his medals . . . nor did many of his comrades. If you talk to those who have been in war, they are reluctant to talk about what they saw or acts of heroism they achieved, seeing it as simply part of their duty while serving their country.

That's the way everyday American heroes handle their medals, not like Kerry did at the Democrat Convention with his three purple-hearts on the screen, as he walked out onto the stage to proclaim, "I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty."

And the convention cheered their faux symbol.