Ships
- USS Enterprise (CV-6) Captain from 7 November 1943 · Relieved on 10 July 1944
Matthias Bennett Gardner was born on 28 November 1897 and grew up in State College, Pennsylvania. He entered the U.S. Naval Academy in 1915 graduated in 1918 (NavSource lists him with the Class of 1919) and was commissioned an ensign. He went to France with the destroyer force on convoy duty out of Brest. In 1922 he reported to Naval Air Station Pensacola for flight training, and he spent the years before World War II in aviation billets, many of them in the Navy Department.
During the war he served as assistant chief of staff for plans to the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Fleet. In November 1943 he took command of Enterprise and led her through the Gilbert and Marshall Islands campaigns. He later commanded Carrier Division Eleven.
After the war he commanded Naval Station Pearl Harbor (1945–48) and served in the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations. In 1950 he took Carrier Division Seven. As a vice admiral he commanded the Second Fleet from September 1950 to 1951 and the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean from 1951 to 1952, and he sat on the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics in 1952–53. He retired in 1956 as a Deputy Chief of Naval Operations and was advanced to admiral on the retired list. His decorations included the Distinguished Service Medal, two Legions of Merit and the Bronze Star.
Gardner died on 23 August 1975 at the naval hospital in Pensacola, and his funeral was held at Naval Air Station Pensacola.