We have been following Marland Burckhardt, a Russell High School graduate who married his Russell sweetheart in college and began an Army career focused on Military Intelligence and Special Forces operations. He deployed to Vietnam in January 1970 and then he and Barb had assignments at multiple Army posts across the United States, including battalion commands at Fort Hood, Texas ,and Fort Douglas, Utah, before being selected for promotion to colonel and to attend the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania.

Marland had a family mission to attend to before leaving command in Utah for the War College.

“My daughter was not a great student, but she was a hard worker. She graduated from high school in Utah. I found out Shippensberg University, about 30 miles from Carlisle Barracks had a program for students to come in early summer and get ready for college. I enrolled her in that program, to her distress. (Marland chuckled) She and I flew out to Shippensburg and I left her there. She struggled through (that pre-college session) and it wasn’t easy, but she graduated from Shippensburg with a degree in elementary education. So, that’s how that worked out.”

Marland, Barb, and their son, Montz arrived at Carlisle Barracks later in the summer of 1987.

“There were a limited number of quarters, but I was a promotable lieutenant colonel, just waiting to get promoted. So, we lived on Carlisle Barracks in one of these little, wooden houses. They were called Smurf Village.”

Marland explained the role of the Army War College

“The mission of the Army War College is to take muddy boot guys, by and large successful battalion commanders, and move them up another rung in thinking about their profession and the mission of the military. A lot of it deals with leadership at a strategic level, the headquarters of the various services. So, you study things like vision and national interests. You get into higher operational planning, theater planning, and campaign planning. You learn how the Pentagon, the Congress, and the budgeting process works. You are learning about the executive level of the military services to broaden the understanding of the National Defense establishment of the guys who have been working at the lower levels”

He described the War College’s student body as successful battalion-level commanders as well as peer-officers from other branches and from allied nations. Guest speakers frequently included the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the combatant commanders like Central Command and Southern Command, and the service chiefs.

During his tour at the War College the Army selected Marland for command of the School Brigade at Fort Devens, MA.

“I assumed command in August of ’88. I had two battalions of students at Fort Devens and a battalion of students at an Air Force base in Texas. I also had a detachment at Pensacola, Florida commanded by a major. So, I had as many as 5,000 students, staff, and faculty spread from Texas to Florida to Devens. It was basically the care and cleaning of students. (Marland chuckled) Making sure students were where they were supposed to be, when they were supposed to be there. Making sure their training was going the way it was supposed to be going. They had gone through basic training and now they were going through their MOS (Military Occupational Specialty) qualification courses. Devens dealt with Signals Intelligence and Electronic Warfare. The unit in Texas at the Air Force base and the Detachment at Pensacola were into MESINT (Measurement and Signature Intelligence), really exotic stuff. So, these were a pretty select group of students in many cases.”

The Burckhardts had a major housing upgrade from the “Smurf Village” bungalow at Carlisle Barracks.

“As a brigade commander we had housing set aside for us. These were big, brick, O-6 quarters. They were substantial quarters.”

Marland’s dispersed command meant that, once again, he had to travel a lot. But he credited his subordinate commanders at all three sites under his command as solid leaders who were capable of operating independently with good judgment. He also explained why his students were spread across three training installations with different service branches.

“At some time in the past the services divided up who was responsible for certain MOS training. The Navy got a piece of (Military Intelligence training) in Pensacola; the Air Force got a piece of it in Texas; and the Army got a piece of it at Devens. So, we had students from all services in all of those schools.”

Marland commanded the School Brigade for two years, leaving command to return to Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as the G-2 (Intelligence Officer) for the entire XVIII Airborne Corps. Marland arrived at Fort Bragg in August 1990 during the initial stages of a major deployment to defend Saudi Arabia from attack by Iraq, who had just invaded Kuwait. Marland’s Corps was a part of Operation Desert Shield. He was about to go to war again in the service of his nation.

©2025 William D. Palmer.