Loon: A Marine Story

Jack McLean's story is my story and the story of every Marine &q

Jack McLean's story is my story and the story of every Marine "Grunt" I served with in Vietnam. Jack captures the feelings of the times, the personal reasons for doing such an outlandish thing as enlisting in time of war, the fright of Marine boot camp and the boredom/terror of combat up on the "Z". His reflections of the aftermath of his experience is similar to all my Marine brothers I meet at reunions now as an old man. Thanks Jack, you did us well. Semper Fi
Dan D-1/26

Profound

After graduating from the Phillips Academy, Jack McLean joined the Marines. After basic training, he went to Viet Nam where he served a tour from November 1967 to July 1968. Following his stint in hell, He came home, left the military and enrolled at Harvard. His story of his time as a marine in Nam is harrowing and dangerous. Using letters he sent home and dialogue from what he recalls, Mr. McLean provides a profound experience of serving on the firing lines; just a few days after arriving in country. Though the re-enactment of verbal communication may disturb some as to authenticity since four decades have passed and collaboration is not easy, readers will believe the author has an audio-graphic memory as the chaos and fog of combat comes frighteningly across. This is a great memoir by someone who attended school with President Bush 43, but chose a different path of serving during the Viet Nam War.

Harriet Klausner

A well-told memoir of a combat Marine

What a fine memoir! This authentic book captures what it was like to be a combat Marine infantryman in northern I Corps during the Vietnam War. The author has done an excellent job, and as a former Marine officer and combat veteran of Vietnam, including a big operation in the mountains of western I Corps, I found Loon to be a page-turner, a well-written memoir for the reader's permanent library. Habusix, former Captain US Marine Corps

Revisiting the past

I have read historical and personal accounts of Vietnam before and this is the most personally and intimately detailed day to day account. I felt as though I was right under the authors skin viewing his decision to go, his training, and the war experience. I felt gripped by the events and drained by the experience, but still had a sense of humanity and hope.

This is a book I have recommended to friends who were also there, to those of us left behind, to those of us who protested this war, and those of us who lost friends and loved ones in Vietnam. For anyone up to the challenge of going back to that time, it is well worth the read. I could not put it down.

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