Allan Gardner takes his dog to the VA hospital every week to cheer patients. Last weekend, he did even more.
Allan Gardner, an 84-year-old World War II veteran from West Los Angeles, wanted to do something a little extra to help celebrate Veterans Day this year. Not that he hadn't already done plenty for those who served.
Gardner has been on a 12-year tour of duty as a volunteer at the VA's West Los Angeles Medical Center, making weekly visits with his dog, G.G. (as in Good Girl). The former sailor and his standard poodle try to cheer up sick or injured vets, some of whom are in residential programs.
"It gives the vets five minutes to talk about something other than their aches and pains," said Gardner, who works as a property manager when he isn't doing good deeds.
A couple of years ago, Gardner heard about a deal offered annually by the McCormick & Schmick's restaurant chain. The restaurant serves thousands of complimentary meals to vets at its dozens of branches nationwide, usually on the Sunday before Veterans Day.
"A couple of years ago … I got a 12-passenger van from Enterprise," says Gardner, who drove a dozen vets to dinner at the McCormick & Schmick's on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. "It was a great experience."
Gardner got to thinking that if he could do 12, why not 112? That would take some help, but Gardner wasn't too shy to ask for it.
The Tumbleweed transportation company, which parks its vehicles at the VA, came through with two buses, no charge. But Gardner wanted to make sure the vets got the royal treatment, and the complimentary offer from McCormick & Schmick's covered only the entree and two sides. So he set out to raise an extra $10 per vet to cover the cost of salad, a beverage and dessert.
On Sunday, Oct. 24, Gardner took a chance that another World War II vet might answer the call. He wrote a letter to Hugh Hefner, drove to the Playboy mansion, and dropped an envelope through the front gate.
"It rained that night," said Gardner, who worried that his plea might get washed down a storm drain. If so, he was willing to shell out his own money.
But two days later, Gardner got a call from Hefner's secretary saying the Playboy founder would be happy to help out. By week's end, Gardner got a $1,120 check in the mail from Hefner.
This past Sunday, a Tumbleweed bus left the VA a little before 3 p.m. with more than 50 vets aboard. An hour later, the second bus left with another 40-plus hungry vets.
Spirits were high. Many of the vets had been homeless for long stretches, still fighting the ghosts of war and often wondering where they'd get their next meal. When the buses stopped on Rodeo Drive and the march began, there were a few limps in the battalions, along with canes, an oxygen tank and some Legionnaire caps.
"I served from 1943-1945," said a vet named Millie Taylor, 86, as she started her salad course. Taylor was in the nursing corps, treating servicemen with severe burns and other injuries. "My son was killed in Vietnam when he was 19, and I had six brothers in World War II, one of them killed in Germany."
Seated at the next table were two more World War II vets — Steve Rosmarin, 83, and John Wesley McCoy, 88. McCoy said he served in Guadalcanal and considers himself lucky to have survived. Rosmarin is a member of the L.A. County Veterans Advisory Commission and spent 20 years working to make the new Veterans Home of California a reality on the VA campus.
Paul Pierce, general manager of the restaurant, said $5 per vet — rather than $10 — would cover the cost of drinks, dessert and the rest. That meant there was more than enough to pick up the extras for a whole lot more vets who came on their own, and when Hefner's money ran out, McCormick & Schmick's picked up the tab for dozens more. By the end of the day 500 vets from across the region had dined at the restaurant.
One of them was Adrienne Mohamed, a Navy RN during the Korean War.
"We treated amputees and serious psychiatric cases," she said, telling me she's slowed down a bit since recent heart surgery, but 2005 was "the year of my life." Mohamed ran a marathon that year, at 72, won medals for swimming, cycling, discus and horseshoes at the Veterans National Golden Age Games and hit "a $16,000 jackpot" in Vegas.
The free meal was like another little jackpot for the vets, Mohamed said, doubting that many of them had spent much time on Rodeo Drive.
Gardner, who left Hamilton High School at 17 to fight in the Pacific, was happy that a handful of World War II vets showed up along with those who served in Vietnam, Korea, Iraq and Afghanistan. Of the 16.5 million who served during World War II, fewer than 2 million are still alive.
"We'll be gone soon," he said.
Next Tuesday, Gardner and G.G. will be back at the VA, making the rounds. He said he considers it "my payback" to those who served and to those who take care of them.
"I am delighted to be able to do it."
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