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Vietnam DiariesReturn EngagementBy Ken Anderberg
Not every member of the military who served in Vietnam experienced combat. In fact, only one out of 10 U.S. military personnel were actually on the front lines. The rest provided invaluable services - medical, supply, transport, administrative, training, intelligence and many other support functions vital to the success of the troops on the front lines.
While such rear echelon duty did not in any way diminish their contribution to the U.S. military effort, the war often had a far different impact on these support personnel . Their experience was different and , often, so was the effect their Vietnam service had on their careers once they returned to the "real world." In many cases, these rear echelon warriors formed a closer bond to the South Vietnamese, as only day-to-day personal contact in more serene settings can provide.
William "Joe" Bruckner knew he was destined for a tour in Vietnam during his assignment to combat intelligence school at Fort Holabard, Maryland, outside of Baltimore. The war was beginning to wind down then in 1970, but hundreds of thousands of troops would still be needed in the next few years to rotate out others who had served their normal one-year stint. Bruckner figured also that his University of Georgia law degree would ensure a Vietnam posting in relative safety.
"I was not adverse to going," he says from his lofty BellSouth Corp. executive office in midtown Atlanta. "I knew I was going and I looked at it as somewhat of an adventure.
"I might not have had it as bad as some people," he adds. "I knew something about the military because my father had served in the Army in World War II and Korea, and I went to a military college at The Citadel. Even though Vietnam was totally different than anything I'd ever been through, it wasn't like all of a sudden I was thrown into something that was totally foreign."
Today, trim and athletic looking, Bruckner serves as associate general counsel for BellSouth Corp. In 1970 and 1971, however, he was half way around the world, providing combat intelligence analysis for the U.S. Army's Military Assistance Command Vietnam (MACV) operations in Dalat, two hundred miles north of Saigon.
"I didn't really get into any hand-to-hand combat like some people I know," Bruckner admits. "A lot of my work was flying in helicopters, trying to find out what was going on down on the ground. We had these machines called sniffers that would supposedly pick up scents on the ground. We would go into areas where there were supposed to be free fire zones. If there was something there that wasn't supposed to be there, we'd move away and the gunships would come in.
"We would analyze captured documents. My job was primarily supporting the Vietnamese intelligence officers."
Bruckner's modesty aside, flying over hostile territory was not the safest job in Vietnam. Slow-moving Hueys made tasty targets for Viet Cong and North Vietnamese regulars on the ground. The U.S. lost many helicopters and crew flying such seemingly innocuous missions. Bruckner, who was decorated with a Bronze Star and Air Medal, does admit to taking fire on more than one occasion.
"Probably the first time the war really had an impact on me was the first night we had guard duty and I heard some civilians outside of town had been killed by some Viet Cong," he says. "And, I thought,'This is real.' As you leave Saigon and head up country, you hear the artillery, but you still are not sure how real all this is until something like that happens.
"This was the first time I'd dealt with a totally different culture," the former Marist High School student and athlete adds. "I was fortunate because in my job I was able to deal with a lot of different groups of Vietnamese. In Dalat, there were all different levels of economic status, so I got to know the Vietnamese that worked with us that were among the lower paid people, but I also got to know some very educated Vietnamese. I don't know if it was a life-changing experience but I think it had a positive impact on me.
"The real impact the war had on me was it really made me appreciate living here (the United States)," he adds, "because just seeing what all those people had gone through all those years of constant war. It really hit home."
Returning to his native Atlanta in October 1971, Bruckner soon found a position as assistant solicitor of Fulton County ("I think the people who hired me looked at the Vietnam experience as a positive."). After two years, he was ready to seek a law firm position until a friend suggested he look into an opening at Southern Bell.
"I never even thought about going in-house before," he recalls. "I really liked the people and the practice; it was interesting. I didn't really intend to stay as long as I did."
Twenty-six years later, he is still with the Baby Bell, steadily climbing the corporate ladder. His resume includes a nine-year stint as a general attorney at Southern Bell headquarters in Atlanta, in the labor practice; nearly two years heading up the company's regulatory and litigation office in Columbia, S.C.; three years back in Atlanta in the regulatory and litigation area; a short time at BellSouth Enterprises in Atlanta as corporate operations and litigation counsel; four years as BellSouth general attorney for corporate human resources; three years as asscociate general counsel for BellSouth Enterprises; and the last six years in his current position, where he is responsible for the general operations group, which includes intellectual property, labor litigation and unregulated subsidiaries.
Reflecting on how his Vietnam experience might have impacted the rest of his life, Bruckner cites his contact with others in the military, as well as with the Vietnamese and their culture, as lasting influences. "I worked with all different types of people, a melting pot of people," he says. "That probably has helped. It would have helped anyone in knowing how to deal with people.
"One thing Vietnam did," the former Army captain adds, "is when things get stressful, you learned to handle the problem, regardless of what the stress is or what the pressure is, because you certainly went through that over there."
Roswell-resident Bruckner is one of those veterans you read about who has made the journey back to peacetime Vietnam. For many, such a trip is an emotionally cleansing experience. For Bruckner, curiousity was as much a factor for going as anything.
"It was fascinating; it was really a good experience,"he says of the 1995 trip with his wife, who lived in Bangkok teaching at the international school during her husband's Vietnam tour. Air America (yes, the storied CIA airline) facilitated their reunions in Saigon and Bangkok in 1970 and 1971.
"The thing that amazed me is how much the South Vietnamese really, really want to see Americans," Bruckner continues. "I could not believe how, when they found out you were an American, they would come up and want to talk. When they found out we were Americans, they were all over us.
"Mine was sort of a different type of job because I was an adviser," he says of his war experience. "I taught English to the kids. I was able to get to know the people. I had more empathy for the people than most Americans who were there in the war.
"I think a lot of the troops over there didn't have a chance to get to know the Vietnamese. I have even more empathy after going back, when people were able to talk, and finding out what happened after we left."
There still were obstacles, however, in a country still under communist rule. While Bruckner would have liked to seek out his former translator, students and other Vietnamese friends he had made 24 years earlier, he was advised that asking about them could put them in jeopardy. So he was left with quietly trying, and failing, to find a familiar face during his second visit.
"Not much has changed physically where I was," he says of of the Dalat area on his second tour. "It's amazing how much is still there; where I worked, where I lived.
"There's a lot of potential in Vietnam. The North Vietnamese leadership is getting older and there's a group of people below them who are capitalists. If somebody had a Coca-Cola in the back room, they would put it on the table and sell it."
Bruckner's second trip to Vietnam further validated his support of the controversial "police action. "I'm really glad I went," he says of his war service. "I know it sounds ridiculous to some people to say that and maybe I wouldn't feel that way if I didn't come back in one piece. Any time you lose as many people as we did, you wish it hadn't happened, but if you look at what was going on, it was not just Cambodia and Laos, but communist insurgencies in Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia and all over Southeast Asia.
"I know there a lot of people, and I'm one of them, who say if we hadn't gone in and done what we did that there's a good chance that things would be different in those countries now. I hope nothing like that happens again, but it was a valuable experience for me."
William Joseph Bruckner - Personal File
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