Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 206 in Shawano is the local post for veterans who served between Nov. 1, 1955, and May 7, 1975, or in any duty location from Aug. 5, 1964, to May 7, 1975.
The chapter meets at the new Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) Post 2723, 820 S. Olson St., Shawano.
Bernie Burrack, of Shawano, a U.S. Marine and veteran of the Vietnam War, is a past president of the chapter, which he joined in 2005.
He was encouraged to join the VVA by Chet Hanson, a Shawano County deputy, who was a big motivator in getting the VVA chapter going in Shawano.
Initially, Burrack didn’t really care to have much to do with anything service-related.
“Coming back from Vietnam wasn’t a good experience,” he said. “It left me a little bitter. I joined in 2005 and found a very nice group of guys to be around and to work with. You feel at home with this group of Vietnam vets because we all have something we can relate to.”
He also joined the Suring American Legion Post, where he was vice commander for a number of years.
Burrack, who grew up on a dairy farm near Suring and graduated from Suring High School, entered the United States Marine Corps on July 30, 1969.
“About seven months after that,” he said, “I was on my way to Vietnam. When I got to Vietnam, I was assigned to the 7th Engineer Battalion, Charlie Company.”
Burrack said that when he got there Feb. 8, 1970, Vietnam was kind of a crazy place. His first week was spent at battalion headquarters in Dog Patch, near Da Nang.
Dog Patch was a settlement near the Da Nang Air Base, managed by the U.S. military. A lot of Marines, like Burrack, passed through there before going on to their assigned posts.
“My first night in-country, five mortar rounds came in at battalion headquarters,” he said. “I found the next day that it was Marines who had got kicked out of the enlisted men’s club. They got back to their hill and sent the mortar rounds into the base.”
One of the rounds landed next to the hut that Burrack and other new Marines were in. He commented: “That was different”.
“On my first week on Hill 37 with Charlie Company, someone threw a frag into the staff NCO (non-commissioned officer) hut,” Burrack said. “That killed an ARVN (Army of the Republic of Vietnam) staff sergeant, I think.”
He said that for his first week and a half in Vietnam, he wondered what was going on.
“I was assigned to headquarters platoon with Charlie Company, and I drove a dump truck,” Burrack said. “We built roads.”
He said that 7th Charley Company got pulled out around November 1970, and he was going to go back to the United States with them. But because he had motion sickness and they were taking all of the equipment back on a boat, he didn’t leave with them.
“Someone looked at my orders and saw that I had a few months due left in-country,” Burrack said. “At that time, there was a year rotation.”
From there, Burrack went to 1st Medical Battalion and worked in security at the hospital. He stayed there until February 1971 when he rotated back home.
“I got back to the States, and I was a driving instructor for about six months,” Burrack said. “That was very enjoyable.”
He said he had to train two young Marines from Chicago who didn’t even know how to ride a bicycle, and he taught them how to drive trucks.
“That was fun,” Burrack said. “From there I went to Marine Barracks in Alameda, California, which was a Naval Air Station.”
Burrack was there for just short of two years. He said that he didn’t enjoy it too much in Alameda because it was a “lot of spit and polish.”
After his time in the Marines ended, Burrack went to Northeast Wisconsin Technical College to study police science. In 1975, he was hired by the Shawano Police Department and worked there for 28 years, retiring in 2003.
“At the police department, myself and another officer started the K-9 program,” Burrack said. “I got to work with my dog, Marco, for almost 10 years.”
Burrack was also a firearms instructor for the department for about 23 years.
