Retired Lt. Col. Corky Gardner (Photo by Bonnie Newman Davis)
Retired Lt. Col. Corky Gardner had delivered death notifications during his early military career, but telling longtime friends that their son — a young man Gardner had known for many years and taught at the Naval Academy — had been killed by snipers in Iraq was beyond “tough.”
That son was Travis Manion, a first lieutenant in the U.S. Marines, and next weekend a charity race to honor him and other military and emergency first responders who have died in the line of duty will take place in Richmond.
When leaders from the Travis Manion Foundation invited Gardner, now a Richmond resident, to be master of ceremonies for the Richmond 9/11 Heroes Run, he did not hesitate.
Gardner ended his nearly three-decade military career, which included flying the Marine One helicopter for two U.S. presidents, in 2000. He currently is a regional director for William Blair, a global investment firm.
While in the Marines, Gardner befriended Travis Manion’s parents, Col. Tom Manion and his wife, Janet. He met their son Travis when the boy was a seventh-grader, and remembers watching him compete on his high school wrestling team in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. Gardner was also the 18-year-old’s battalion commander at the Naval Academy in Annapolis in 1999.
In the book, “Brothers Forever,” written in 2014 by Tom Manion and syndicated columnist Tom Sileo, Gardner appears frequently. When Travis decided, after four months, that he was tired of the Naval Academy’s rigorous and tedious rules, Gardner tried to persuade him to reconsider, at least until he spoke with his parents. But Travis, a gifted scholar and athlete, was determined to leave the academy and enrolled in Drexel University, where he joined the wrestling team.
“I wish you the best,” Gardner told Travis, “but I also want you to know that if you ever want to come back, I will put in a word for you.”
After one semester at Drexel, Manion realized that he’d made a mistake and reapplied to the academy. His time away had given him “a fuller appreciation of what the Navy stood for, and he valued the bonds he’d forged with several academy friends,” according to the book, which focuses on the friendship between Travis and his roommate, U.S. Navy SEAL Brendan Looney, who was one of nine U.S. service members killed in a Black Hawk helicopter crash in Afghanistan on Sept. 21, 2010.
After graduating from the Naval Academy on Memorial Day 2004 and finishing at the top of his class at The Basic School in Quantico, Travis was assigned to the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Pendleton, California, with which he deployed to Iraq for his first tour of duty.
In 2006, with 10 other Marines, Travis joined a military transition team that would train and partner with an Iraqi Army battalion in Fallujah, Iraq.
On April 29, 2007, Travis, his fellow Marines and Iraqi Army team members were ambushed while searching a suspected insurgent house in the Al Anbar province of Iraq. Leading the counterattack against the enemy forces, Travis was killed by an enemy sniper while aiding his wounded teammates.
“The sniper fire went through his body armor and went through his chest,” says Gardner, recalling the day — a Sunday — when he learned about Travis’s death and had to deliver the news, along with his wife, Renee, to the Manions, who were entertaining family and friends in their Doylestown home.
Tom Manion’s book vividly describes the family’s reaction:
“After opening the door and seeing the looks on Corky and Renee’s faces, Janet slammed the heavy white door shut as her sister and other relatives sprinted toward the foyer. When Gardner gently reopened the door to come inside, Janet slammed it again, this time so hard that the hinges broke.”
Shortly after Travis’ death, a foundation was established to honor his service to his country. The Travis Manion Foundation helps families who have lost a loved one in the armed services of our nation and assists veterans in their transition to the civilian sector. A signature event is the 9/11 Heroes Run, a 5K that takes place in more than 50 locations in the United States and other countries.
The Richmond 9/11 Heroes Run 5K race begins Sunday, Sept. 10, at 2 p.m. at 1000 Semmes Ave. Last year, more than 50,000 people participated in race locations around the world or as virtual runners.
Each participant receives a shirt printed with the words, “If not me, then who?" This was Travis’ reply when asked why he volunteered to serve a second deployment to Iraq in 2007.
The Heroes Run, says Gardner, “recognizes the sacrifices made by [our armed services] and our first responders, each and every day.”
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