LCDR JOSEPH WALTER GARDNER, USN (RET.) SIGNAL CHARLIE 
“Rats, Joe Gardner, the greatest Rat of all, the inventor of Vert Rep in the H-46.” MR
LCDR Joesph W. Gardner, USN (Ret.) passed away Tuesday evening December 11, 2018 from a stroke in Fairhope, Alabama, with his wife and family at his side. He was a Plank Owner of the original NHHS, now NHAHS and a NHA Trustee. He received his Navy Helicopter Designation as a Navy LT in HTU-1 at NAS Ellyson Field, Pensacola, FL April 1, 1955 as Helicopter Designator Number 2392.
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, Joseph Walter Gardner, loving husband and father of five children passed away at the age of 95 in Fairhope, Alabama. Joe was born on November 26, 1923, in Yakima, WA to Raymond and Louise (Offutt) Gardner. He entered the Navy’s V-5 Program in December 1942, and married Evelyn May Goff on August 30, 1945. In that same year he received a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman. Joe and Eve raised four daughters, Sharon, JoAnn, Christine and Judith and son, James. He is survived by his wife and children, 12 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren. Joe received his commission in the US Navy 08MAY45 and was designated a Naval Aviator 15MAY45; fighter pilot and carrier qualified. He held the Gunnery Record, NAS Deland, FL, 07AUG45, 37.5% hits (previous record: 28%), perhaps never again equaled. After a 6-year hiatus working in the family nursery/landscaping business, he returned to the Navy and was rotary wing qualified in 1955. Joe’s passion, while mostly reserved for his cherished wife, Eve, and claim to fame is grounded in his love, extreme skill and complete mastery of flying helicopters. He flew nearly all helicopters in the Navy’s inventory and is generously but accurately credited with inventing Vertical Replenishment with the Boeing H-46 helicopter. He has been awarded the Naval Helicopter Association’s two most prestigious awards for Lifelong Service and the Mark Starr Pioneer Award. He demonstrated beautifully his skills and the grace of the modern helicopter, as the 
H-46 demonstration pilot at the 1965 Paris Air Show. After launching Vertical Replenishment from the Mediterranean Sea to the East coast to the West coast, Japan and the Pacific, Joe retired from the Navy at the end of June, 1970. He moved his wife and youngest daughter to Australia and began a second career flying and managing commercial passenger and utility helicopter operations throughout Asia for Airfast Helicopter Utilities in Sydney, Darwin, Bangkok, Seoul, and Taipei; Great China Airlines, Taipei, Taiwan; and China Ocean Helicopter Company, Cili, China. He rounded out the last 9 (+) years of his flying career with Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., flying out of Lafayette, LA. He logged more than 14, 000 total helicopter hours military and civilian. The epitomy of the unsung hero, Joe saved lives and supported the Navy’s world-wide mission throughout his career. He is loved and revered by those he mentored and trained as a pilot. As a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great uncle and pilot, Joe will be sorely missed. He has been known to say he’d likely die at 93 by the hand of a jealous husband, but he made it without such incident to 95. God bless him. John Gillespie Magee Jr.’s poem High Flight. Joe was preceded in death by his mother and father, Marie and Raymond, two brothers Macklin and Raymond, daughter-in-law Sari Fennel, and sons-in-law, Charles Holliday, Don Brown, and Robert Garlick.
Services will be held at: Oak Lawn Funeral Home 619 New Warrington Blvd Pensacola, FL 32506 Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Visitation with reception 10:00-11:45 AM Memorial service 11:45-12:30 PM Depart Oak Lawn Funeral Home to Barrancas Nat’l Cemetery, NAS Pensacola 12:30 PM Graveside Service, Full Military Honors, Barrancas Nat’l Cemetery 1:00 PM Depart NAS Pensacola 1:30 PM
Thoughts and memories from CAPT Terry Lackey, USN (Ret.) about Joe below
“On 29 April 1970, Joe Gardner gave me my HAC check in HC-7. After wringing me out, he took the controls to “show me a couple things.” Returning to the field at NAS Atsugi, Japan, he requested a down wind low pass over the runway, at the numbers pulled the aircraft up into a Paris Air Show rotor over, touched down precisely abeam the HC-7 flight line with enough airspeed for a running landing, holding the nose off the deck for taxi, spinning the aircraft into the parking area, starting the APP, dropping the nose gear on the parking spot after bleeding off turns, shutting down, then hitting the rotor brake. He turned to me, said “Nice job,kid. I had Aircraft Commander SAR duty today. Now you have it.” Did not get a SAR call that day. My only other hop was a .2 test hop with Mike Reber. Two legends in one day. Priceless.”
Thoughts about Joe below expressed by CAPT Mike Reber, USN (Ret.)
“Rats, the greatest Rat of all, the inventor of Vert Rep in the H-46, the first XO of HC-3, designer of the Vert Rep ship configuration, OinC of the first Navy H-46 Detachment, deployed to the Med and West Pac, Paris Air Show with the H-46, flew the H-46 in HC-4, HC-3 and HC-7, helicopter legend, JOE GARDNER has passed away after a stroke. He will be greatly missed and there will never be another like him. Raise a glass./ MR”
CAPT Earle Rogers, USN (Ret.) tells the following story about a flight with Joe below
“The world’s greatest H-46 driver and an absolutely wonderful Naval officer! In a memorable flight on May 16, 1970 as Joe’s copilot in an H-46, we were assigned to pick up Rear Admiral Zumwalt from the heliport at Yokosuka and transport him, his wife and two daughters to Camp Fuji for R&R. He had left ComNavForVietnam heading to the states to become CNO. The sun had set, the weather was marginal as we flew above the Tome Expressway to Camp Fuji. No telling how many power lines were stretched across the Tome, but we missed them all! Joe Gardner has been my hero since HC-7! Earle”
Fair Winds and Following Seas.
LCDR Joseph Walter Gardner, USNR (Retired)
November 26. 1923 to December 11, 2018
On Tuesday, December 11, 2018, Joseph Walter Gardner, loving husband and father of five children passed away at the age of 95 in Fairhope, Alabama.
Joe was born on November 26, 1923, in Yakima, WA to Raymond and Louise (Offutt) Gardner. He entered the Navy’s V-5 Program in December 1942, and married Evelyn May Goff on August 30, 1945. In that same year he received a bachelor’s degree from Washington State University in Pullman. Joe and Eve raised four daughters, Sharon, JoAnn, Christine and Judith, and a son, James. He is survived by his wife and children, two nieces, son-in-law, 12 grandchildren and 7 great grandchildren.
Joe received his commission in the US Navy 08MAY45 and was designated a Naval Aviator 15MAY45; fighter pilot and carrier qualified. He held the Gunnery Record, NAS Deland, FL, 07AUG45, 37.5% hits (previous record: 28%), perhaps never again equaled. After a 6-year hiatus working in the family nursery/landscaping business, he returned to the Navy and was rotary wing qualified in 1955.
Joe’s passion, while mostly reserved for his cherished wife, Eve, and claim to fame is grounded in his love, extreme skill and complete mastery of flying helicopters. He flew nearly all helicopters in the Navy’s inventory and is generously but accurately credited with inventing Vertical Replenishment with the Boeing H-46 helicopter. He has been awarded the Naval Helicopter Association’s two most prestigious awards for Lifelong Service and the Mark Starr Pioneer Award. He demonstrated beautifully his skills and the grace of the modern helicopter, as the H-46 demonstration pilot at the 1965 Paris Air Show.
After launching Vertical Replenishment from the Mediterranean Sea to the East coast to the West coast, Japan and the Pacific, Joe retired from the Navy at the end of June, 1970. He moved his wife and youngest daughter to Australia and began a second career flying and managing commercial passenger and utility helicopter operations throughout Asia for Airfast Helicopter Utilities in Sydney, Darwin, Bangkok, Seoul, and Taipei; Great China Airlines, Taipei, Taiwan; and China Ocean Helicopter Company, Cili, China. He rounded out the last 9 (+) years of his flying career with Petroleum Helicopters, Inc., flying out of Lafayette, LA.
The epitome of the unsung hero, Joe saved lives and supported the Navy’s world-wide mission throughout his career. He is loved and revered by those he mentored and trained as a pilot. As a husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great uncle and pilot, Joe will be sorely missed. He has been known to say he’d likely die at 93 by the hand of a jealous husband, but he made it without such incident to 95. God bless him.
‘High Flight’
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth Of sun-split clouds – and done a hundred things You have not dreamed of – wheeled and soared and swung High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung My eager craft through footless halls of air. Up, up the long delirious, burning blue, I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace Where never lark, or even eagle flew – And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod The high unsurpassed sanctity of space, Put out my hand and touched the face of God. Pilot Officer John Gillespie Magee
Joe was preceded in death by his mother and father, Louise and Raymond, two brothers Macklin and Raymond, daughter-in-law Sari Fennel, and sons-in-law, Charles Holliday, Don Brown, and Robert Garlick.
Services will be held at:
Oak Lawn Funeral Home
619 New Warrington Blvd
Pensacola, FL 32506
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Visitation with reception 10:00-11:45 AM
Memorial service 11:45-12:30 PM
Depart Oak Lawn Funeral Home to Barrancas Nat’l Cemetery, NAS Pensacola 12:30 PM
Graveside Service, Full Military Honors, Barrancas Nat’l Cemetery 1:00 PM
Depart NAS Pensacola 1:30 PM
