Top o boftom: U.S.S. Admiral W. S. Benson (AP-120) Pier 88, New York; San Fernando, Luzon, P.I. 8 ' ■ ' ' ■-V ' -
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CAPTAIN FRANCIS H. GARDNER, USN Captain Gardner has had a varied and interesting career in the U.S. Navy. A native of Portland, Oregon, he was appointed to the Naval Academy in 1920 and graduated in 1924. After graduation he was ordered to the U.S.S. Arizona for engineering duty, and since that time has spent twenty of his twenty-five years of naval service on sea duty. Leaving the Arizona in 1925 Captain Gardner served five years as Engineering Officer aboard the destroyers Reno, Wm. Jones, and Aaron Ward consecutively. Next came duty aboard the tanker U.S.S. Ramap o in the capacity of First Lieutenant. His first shore duty came at the Navy Yard, Boston, where Captain Gardner, then a junior grade lieutenant, filled the billet of Ordnance Planning Superintendent. At the end of two years ashore a shift to new duties came with assignment as a gunnery officer aboard the U.S.S. Oklahoma for a period of thirty-five months aboard which ship he was promoted to Lieutenant. Immediately following came a tour of duty as Junior Aide to the Commandant of the I Ith Naval District. On June I I, 1938, he reported aboard the destroyer Monaghan as Executive Officer and Navigator. Two years of destroyer duty with the battle fleet followed and then back to battleship service on the Nevada as Engineering Officer with the rank of Lieutenant Commander. Leaving the Nevada after eleven months Captain Gardner took over his first command, the U.S.S. Ellet (DD 398) of the Pacific Fleet, on 22 June 1941. Under his command the Ellet saw plenty of action in the critical early months of the war, serving in task forces with the carrier Enterprise and doing other escort work in battle areas. After almost two years of exacting combat duty in the Pacific during which time he was promoted to Commander, Captain Gardner was again given shore duty In the U.S. and spent thirteen months In the Subordinate Operational Training Command, San Francisco. On 23 August 1944 the Captain placed in commission and assumed command of the U.S.S. Admiral W. S. Benson (AP 120). Under him the Mighty B has travelled over 125,000 miles, has seen five continents, called at various ports of five countries and several Pacific islands, and carried over 40.000 troop passengers.
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