Leon Mortland was born in 1946 in Tyler, to Hazel and John Mortland. Leon grew up on the family farm northeast of Tyler and attended Tyler Public Schools.

After graduating from Tyler High School in 1964, Leon continued his education at Mankato State College. He met Augustana College student Marilyn Hokenson on a blind date and the two married in August 1968. Marilyn graduated and secured a teaching position in Winona as Leon began his fifth year of college after transferring to Winona State. But he had already completed four years of student deferments from the draft and received his draft notice that December.

Marilyn continued teaching in Winona while Leon reported for induction into the Army and basic training at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. The Army next sent him to Fort Lee, Virginia at the end of March 1969 for his advanced individual training (AIT).

Leon described a couple ways life at AIT was different from basic training.

“Number one, we didn’t have to pull KP (kitchen patrol). They had civilian KPs. And, although we still had our regular physical activity, it was not near what basic had been.”

He explained what his Fort Lee training was like.

“I had two classes there. The first class was in supply accounting. There were 40 or 50 of us in that class. We were MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) 76P, which meant that we were stock control and accounting and worked in Supply. When we got done with that there were 17of us at graduation who, because of our test scores, got into the second class. That was more Army accounting and we were actually working on NCR500 computers. This is 1969.”

Leon recalled the day one of his training sergeants talked with them about their Army assignments.

“He said, ‘Where do you think you’re going?’ We told him, ‘If they have computers at their bases, we’re going to Germany.’ He replied, ‘Well, not really.’ Now everybody is looking around. He asked, ‘Do you know where all of you are going? You’re going to Vietnam.’ That was toward to the end of the second class.”

He remembered one specific way the Army had prepared the trainees for going to Vietnam.

“From the time I was inducted until the time I left Fort Lee, I think I had 35 shots. In basic you walked through and got two in one arm and one in the other arm. That might happen on a weekly basis for a few weeks. I suppose it was standard for getting you ready for overseas.”

Leon and his fellow trainees completed their course in June with deployment orders for Vietnam in hand.

“We got done in mid-June; got a 30-day leave; and came home. Marilyn was at her parents’ house in rural Slayton. When that time was up, Marilyn took me up to the Cities.”

That fall Marilyn returned to her teaching assignment in Winona

“We had the apartment there. She had made friends there and was going back there because she had a job she enjoyed.”

Leon, on the other hand, flew out of Minneapolis in July 1969 for his Vietnam deployment.

“I went to Fort Lewis, Washington; processed through Fort Lewis; got on a bird and flew to Vietnam.

He described his flight overseas.

“We stopped in Alaska and (refueled); and then stopped in Yokota Air Base in Japan. We got out of the plane there. From there we flew into Cam Ranh Bay. People will tell you that the 1st man walked on the moon on July 20th, 1969. But that depends on where you were because it was July 21st when the pilot on the plane told us. We had crossed the International Date Line.”

Leon chuckled as he recalled deplaning at Cam Ranh Bay Air Base.

“All those guys who were in Vietnam had the same impression upon arriving. It was always the heat and the smell. You were thinking, ‘We’re going to live in this?'”

Leon reported to an in-processing center where he received orders assigning him to the 5th Transportation Battalion, part of the 101st Infantry Division in the northernmost, I Corps region of South Vietnam.

“We were there (Cam Ranh Bay) six or seven days for in-country training. When we were done, they loaded a bunch of us into a plane and took us to Phu Bai. That thing shook so bad and rattled so much I thought, ‘I’ve been here a week and I’m going to be dead because this plane isn’t going to make it where we’re supposed to go.’ But we made it to Phu Bai. I don’t know if there was anyone else on that flight that went to Camp Eagle to my company.”

Leon reported to his company at Camp Eagle, the main base of the 101st Airborne Division, where they assigned him to a single-story hootch.

“They were 16 feet wide and 32 feet long with four guys on a side, eight guys. One end was where your M-16’s were stored because you had to be able to get them if you were under attack at night. You had enough room for your cot, your footlocker, and your personal belongings. Then you’ve got the other side and your center aisle. That was about it.”

Leon’s hootch had a protective bunker immediately outside.

©2024 William D. Palmer

The Lyon County Museum is hosting presentations by Vietnam veterans. Karl Porisch, a Marine helicopter pilot, presents Monday, Sept. 9, while Rich Maurer, an Army radioman, presents Wednesday, Sept. 11. Both presentations are at 6 p.m. and are free and open to the public.