Army veteran Rick Gardner brings fellow vets together through Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club

Rick Gardner knows the importance of veterans getting together and socializing.

“It’s just good to be around other veterans.”

—  Rick Gardner, co-president of Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club

Gardner, a Vietnam vet, is co-president of the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club. The club, which serves all veterans in the Fox Valley, meets at 7 a.m. every first and third Thursday at American Legion Post 675 in downtown Oswego.

“It’s a camaraderie thing,” Gardner said. “It’s just good to be around other veterans.”

The club is very active in the community, including being a sponsor of the Oswegoland Park District’s Veterans Serenity Park that was dedicated in November 2019.

“I like honoring veterans,” Gardner said. “They are all around us.”

The 76-year-old Gardner served in the U.S. Army in the Vietnam War. Gardner received his draft notice in 1966 and served in Vietnam for a year.

Gardner was the recipient of the Purple Heart for being wounded in Vietnam while serving as the driver of an armored personnel carrier. The carrier had hit a mine and he received some minor shrapnel wounds in his legs.

“I was just in the hospital for a day,” Gardner said. “It wasn’t serious. I wasn’t expecting to hit a mine because we had just cleared the road of mines. There were three of us that were injured, but they were all minor injuries, luckily.”

He considers himself lucky.

“We had one personnel carrier hit a mine that killed 11 people,” Gardner said.

As he noted, being in the military changes one’s life. Gardner, a 1965 graduate of Oswego High School, was only 19 years old when he went to Vietnam.

“You become more aware of things,” Gardner said. “You are more aware of what goes on around you. There’s not a day or a night where I don’t think about Vietnam. It’s kind of strange because it was only a year out of my life, but I can remember more of that than some things I can remember from yesterday. It just doesn’t go away.”

He keeps in touch with the people who he served with, as much as he can.

“When one of them dies, it hurts,” Gardner said.

Oswego Village President Ryan Kauffman lauded Gardner’s efforts.

“He’s a patriot, a hero, a recipient of the Purple Heart, and he does a lot of great work on behalf of veterans in the area,” Kauffman said. “Oswego is lucky to have him.”

Chad Feldotto, director of parks and planning for the Oswegoland Park District, agreed. Feldotto and Gardner were on a committee, led by the late Herschel Luckinbill, to bring the Vietnam Moving Wall to Oswego in 2017.

“Because of the volunteer efforts of Mr. Gardner, Mr. Luckinbill, and other members of the Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club with the Moving Wall event, the momentum to honor our vets here in Oswego has only increased,” Feldotto said. “The five days the wall was in Oswego really showed a need for a space for local veterans and their families to go and reflect on their service, those they served with and the sacrifices they made for our country. This led to the volunteer-led development of Veterans Serenity Park.”

Feldotto said since the park was completed, Gardner has brought many veterans together through putting on an event called Donuts and Coffee, which is held on a regular basis at Veterans Serenity Park.

“Veteran participation has only grown since he started the event and has meant a lot to those in attendance,” he said.