Jack McLean - Loon: A Marine Story

Loon: A Marine Story

Jack McLean

Ballantine, May 25 2010, $16.00

ISBN: 9780345510167

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