We have been following Marland Burckhardt, a Russell High School graduate who served in the Army in Italy before returning to college, marrying his sweetheart, and graduating with an Army commission. Marland and Barb completed a year-long assignment in Germany before returning to the States where Marland completed the Army Counterintelligence Course, Airborne training, and the Special Forces Officer Course. He deployed to Vietnam in January 1970 to help assess enemy activity in the southern half of South Vietnam for Headquarters, 5th Special Forces Group at Nha Trang, Vietnam.

Marland described the enlisted staff who supported his mission of assessing enemy activity.

“These were sharp, young, enlisted guys, E-4s and E-5s, (specialists and sergeants) many of whom had been in-country for quite a while because they got a good deal. I think for every six months they extended, they got 30 days leave. They were well-versed in the areas which they covered. They knew, for example, the cycles of the VC and NVA units — their training, rest and recuperation, and fighting cycles. They could tell you that VC unit X would be moving through this camp’s area — infiltration and ex-filtration route; either moving into country or out of country for rest and recuperation. Some of them had been there a couple years. They knew what they were doing.”

He also explained his briefing responsibilities.

“I’d come in early and the Order of Battle analysts would bring me up to speed. I would read intelligence reports, and I would put the briefing together. The briefing, a situation update to the commanding officer, was at six or eight in the morning, six days a week. That was a combined briefing. The S-1 would brief personnel issues. I was the primary Intelligence (S-2) briefer. Then the S-3, the operations officer, would brief, the S-4 (Logistics) and the S-5 (Civil Affairs). Some of the senior officers would have questions and you’d do your best to answer. If you couldn’t, you’d say, ‘I’ll get the answer for you, sir.’ Briefings like that can be stressful, but after you get into the groove, it’s kind of standard operating procedure.”

Marland chuckled as he recalled an anxious highlight from his time at Nha Trang.

“I was flying to a camp on the Cambodian border in a helicopter. This was in II Corps. We got up in the air and it was myself, a chaplain, and another passenger. I always took a map with me and I had where the camp was, right close to the Cambodian border. Just inside Cambodia there was a village. We had low clouds, so the chopper got above the clouds. (The pilot) was doing his navigation by time, speed, and direction. He said, ‘Let me come out of these clouds and see where we are.’ When we came down we were right over that little village in Cambodia that I’d seen on my map. He said, “Oh, oh!” We got down and did a nap of the earth flight back into Vietnam. He told me later, ‘The last time somebody got in there like that, they took .50 caliber fire.’ We didn’t take any fire that I knew of, but I remember seeing the people on the ground looking kind of surprised that we were there. The Cambodian peasants were looking up at us and wondering, ‘What the hell are you guys doing over here?’ Anyway, we got out of Cambodia underneath the clouds unscathed.”

About half-way through his Vietnam tour the Army reassigned Marland further north.

“I was sent north to Danang and was the S-2 for the Special Forces Company that had the I Corps area. So, then I was regularly out in those camps and that was on my own volition. We were right on the beach at Danang. The hootches were much the same, but there were fewer of them because it was a much smaller operation. It was kind of a microcosm of what we did at Nha Trang. There were briefings every day. I had some Vietnamese admin folks. I had my Vietnamese counterpart, Captain Huang. I had a senior NCO working for me, some Order of Battle analysts, and a couple of lieutenants who were my shift officers, the guys who were in charge during day or night.”

Marland respected his Special Forces commander at Danang.

“Lieutenant Colonel Mattson was in command of that company. He was a good guy — level-headed. We called them companies, but they were actually battalion-sized. He kept me in my lane. Going out to those camps I thought I wanted to go on a lengthy operation. I went and asked permission to do that and he said, ‘Nope. Stay in your lane. You have no reason to be out there except you want to go out in the bush. Do what you are supposed to be doing.'”

Marland was at Danang until the Army closed that Special Forces command.

“I was up there until we closed down and handed it over. We were handing over our Special Forces camps to the Vietnamese Special Forces, who had been shadowing our teams on these camps forever. When Vietnamization took place, the Vietnamese Special Forces took over. As I recall, we left two or three Americans at each camp when we left. Their job was to help coordinate US fire and logistical support with the Vietnamese Special Forces team.”

We have learned about Marland’s work a Nha Trang and Danang, but he also shared what life was like for him in Vietnam.

©2025 William D. Palmer.