James A. Gardner

During a ceremony at the Pentagon on October 19, 1967, Gardner's widow was formally presented with his Medal of Honor by Secretary of the Army Stanley Rogers Resor. The medal passed between Gardner's widow, mother, and sister until 2009, when it was donated to the 101st Airborne Division. On August 14, 2009, his sister, Lynda Gardner-Park, gave the Medal of Honor to his former unit to be displayed in the division's headquarters at Fort Campbell.

Later that year, after arriving in Vietnam, he helped to form and train Tiger Force, a task force of the division's 1st Battalion (Airborne), 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade, which specialized in the use of guerrilla tactics. On February 7, 1966, during Operation Van Buren, Gardner, then a first lieutenant in his brigade's Headquarters and Headquarters Company, led a platoon in the relief of a company that was pinned down by a strongly entrenched and numerically superior enemy force at the village of My Canh. During the assault on the enemy positions, he single-handedly attacked four bunkers. He was mortally wounded while approaching a fifth bunker, but managed to destroy it before succumbing to his injuries. For these actions, he was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. He was killed on his 23rd birthday, one month before his tour in Vietnam was to end.

He was buried on February 15, 1966, at Fairview Cemetery in his hometown of Dyersburg. In addition to the Medal of Honor, Gardner also received the Vietnam Gallantry Cross with Palm, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart.

Gardner joined the Army from Memphis, Tennessee in 1964, and was stationed with the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He married Joella McManus in June 1965, a month before being sent to Vietnam.

James Alton Gardner (February 7, 1943 – February 7, 1966) was a United States Army officer and a recipient of the United States military's highest decoration—the Medal of Honor—for his actions in the Vietnam War.