Officers

  Dennis Gardner was born at Fort Leonardwood, Missouri, Dennis grew up in Southern California. His first job was at Knott’s Berry Farm, as a train bandit. He entered naval service in August 1977,  volunteered for the Submarine Service during Boot Camp in San Diego. He arrived at the home of the U.S. Submarine fleet, Groton, Connecticut for Underwater Fire Control class “A” school, he chose to train on an aging combat system only on submarines in Hawaii and left for the islands that June. After completing his training, he was assigned to the USS Patrick Henry (Gold) crew. He made five 90 day patrols before again heading back to Groton this time as an instructor. He taught Submarine tactics and weapons employment at the officer submarine school for 18 months before being sent back to the Pacific and two more Submarines, he was then assigned to Submarine Squadron 7 staff as Senior Combat Systems Assistant to the Commodore. Dennis spent three years reasonable for the conventional and nuclear weapons inspection and training of ten submarines. When it came time to once more return to sea he again moved to San Diego and the USS Louisville, which he took to Desert Storm and another Western Pacific deployment. He spent the last four years of his 20-year career in San Diego, assigned to San Diego at the Fleet Technical Support Center, Pacific supervising 33 technicians and responsible for the combat readiness of all submarines in the Pacific fleet. Recently Dennis works at Intel in Chandler in the Defect Metrology department, where he inspected products for defects smaller than the head of a pin. Dennis has been representing the Joe Foss Institute for over three years, where he visits schools to educate the students on civic responsibility and patriotism.