Loon: A Marine Story

by Jack McLean

Book Overview

"Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam," writes Jack McLean in his compulsively readable memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 034551016X
• ISBN13: 9780345510167
• Release Date: May 2010
• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.2" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Straight from the heart

There are as many experiences of Vietnam as there are people who were there. There are some excellent books-Dispatches a favorite-but Jack McLean's resonates with me more than any other. This book comes right to the core of the infantryman's experience: for long periods nothing happens, then all hell breaks loose, and he describes in detail what "all hell breaks loose" really means, and the effect it has during and after action. He has an eye for detail and an ability to recall and describe the emotions and their impact, which are rare attributes, and which make this an exceptional book. It is real, and straight from the heart.

A well-told tale

McLean has a good memory and a knack bringing long forgotten experiences back to life. I lived through those years, and am not sure if I just forgot or deliberately hid those memories, but McLean's book opened them up. I've passed the book along to an old friend from my service days and recommended that he do the same. It was a wonderful read.

Universal Appeal

Jack McLean's memoir of his life as a Marine grunt during the tumultuous years of 1966-1968 is more than the saga of pimply faced teenage boys becoming men as they faced the terrifying horrors of Vietnam. It's the story of learning life long lessons of loyalty, commraderie, and facing and surviving one's worst fears. It's our story, too. The Vietnam War tore our country apart with pictures of young, oh so young, boys dying before our eyes on the nightly news. Those of us on the cutting edge of the baby boom generation were caught up in the politics, the controversy, the plight of those who went and those who stayed home. Jack's book took me right back to those years and I relived them. Each one us was affected, whatever our opinion of the war, whatever our age or gender, and each one of us will find a connection within the pages of his beautifully written memoir. I encourage all, and especially my fellow sixty somethings, to purchase and read Loon. Sandra Lane

Excellent Memoir About A Devastating Battle In Vietnam

Jack McLean has written a memoir that sharply observes, in lucid language, what marine infantry fighting was like in Vietnam. The battle that this book covers is savage and worth a book in itself.

Really, It's About Service.

By way of full disclosure, Jack McLean is an old and dear friend and, perhaps, the most fully human person I know. His book, Loon: A Marine Story is a wonderful coming-of-age tale. It is not political and not judgmental; he writes with a light touch. His journey starts just before his graduation from Phillips Academy in 1966 when, burnt-out academically and not favored with a college acceptance letter, he decides to serve. His family has always had a very strong record of service - philanthropy, Peace Corps, Freedom Riders. When Vietnam was a country on a map and not yet a war, he chose to serve by enlisting in the United States Marine Corps. The book chronicles his experiences at boot camp at Parris Island, an initial year-long assignment to a stateside supply depot, and his eventual orders to Vietnam and participation in a brutal and terrifying three day battle in I Corps, in the far north of South Vietnam near the Laotian border, that leaves the majority of his company dead or wounded. He receives his Harvard acceptance letter in a foxhole before the battle and less than 90 days after the battle at LZ Loon, he matriculates as Harvard's first Vietnam veteran. Talk about a gap year! Really, it is about service and not merely a war story. Jack is touchingly honest about the the toll his service in Vietnam takes on his worried family back home - they who also serve. As I said, Jack may be the most fully human person I know...and he writes like it.