Product Description

Jack McLean was not the average Vietnam grunt. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the esteemed Phillips Andover Academy alongside George W. Bush, all the while pursuing a predictably privileged path. Nearing graduation in the spring of 1966, however, McLean decided on a different direction. At a time when his classmates were making plans to attend the country’s most elite colleges, McLean was more interested in taking a break. Since there was a compulsory draft, he decided on the Marines, given their brief two-year obligation. Few at the time gave Vietnam a thought. It was still considered a country and not a war.

From his first night at the Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, McLean felt circumstances begin to outstrip his ability to deal with them. During the ensuing year, while serving in stateside duty stations, he acutely observed the growing changes between his new life and the lives of his former classmates, who were increasingly caught up in the campus antiwar movement. The Vietnam War had escalated from the moment of McLean’s enlistment, and by the summer of 1967, any hope of remaining stateside diminished as every available marine was retrained in the infantry and sent to Vietnam.

Nothing, however, could have prepared McLean for the horror of Landing Zone Loon: The battle took place over three days in June 1968 on a remote hill tucked into the border of North Vietnam and Laos. On a long knoll with little relief from the pounding sun and no cover from the lurking enemy, McLean and his company endured a relentless artillery and ground assault that would kill twenty-seven men, wound nearly one hundred others, and leave several dozen survivors to defend an ever-shrinking perimeter with little water or ammo. McLean returned home weeks later to a country that was ambivalent to his service. Having applied to college from a foxhole the previous fall, he became the first Vietnam veteran to attend Harvard University.

Written with honesty and thoughtful insight, Loon is a powerful coming-of-age portrait of a privileged boy who bears witness, through an extraordinary perspective, to some of the most tumultuous events in our history, both in Vietnam and back home.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #191898 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-19
• Released on: 2009-05-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780345510150
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Amazon.com Review
Book Description
A lyrical memoir of a prep school boy who creates his own path to higher learning: enlisting in the U.S. Marine Corps, fighting in Vietnam, and then studying at Harvard.

Kids like me don’t go to Vietnam.

Raised in suburban New Jersey, Jack McLean attended the prestigious Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts, with George W. Bush. After graduation, and eager for change, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. At the time, Vietnam was a country and not a war.

In Loon, McLean takes readers from Andover’s privileged campus, to the infamous Marine Corps boot camp at Parris Island, to the battle at Landing Zone Loon in the rugged hills along Vietnam’s Laotian border. During that period, Jack transformed from a sheltered boy, into a Marine, and ultimately into one of a handful of survivors of a horrific three-day assault during some of the heaviest fighting of the Vietnam War.

Richly textured and full of action-packed battle scenes, Loon is a piercingly honest and beautifully written story of an infantry Marine and his comrades as they face the challenges of boot camp, stateside service and, ultimately, war. It neither glorifies nor mystifies. It simply tells the story, and in so doing, teaches us a great deal about courage, honor, sacrifice, and is a powerful portrait of a period of American history.

An Essay by Author Jack McLean

The seeds for Loon: A Marine Story were planted in 1993. I was working in Washington, D.C. Bill Negron, our company commander in Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marines, 3rd Division, was teaching English as a Second Language to Vietnamese children in Scottsdale, Arizona.

I’d had no contact with my marine buddies since I departed Vietnam in July 1968. I had been a corporal serving out the final weeks of my enlistment. Negron had been a captain beginning his second tour in Vietnam.

Over time, I was able to locate him and write the following letter:

Dear Skipper,

There must be little in you that could recall me after twenty-five years back in the world, but your memory rekindles in me often in a most positive way.

I was visiting the Vietnam Veterans Memorial last night saying yet another fond good evening to our many friends. It’s been twenty-five years since those awful three days that we spent in June 1968 on LZ Loon. The Wall has a lot of black marble dedicated to the memory of our company mates.

I have lost touch with everyone that was with us. I pushed the experience out of me for many years. Time has smoothed out the rough edges, however, and I am increasingly interested in trying to figure out what in the world was going on over there and how others of us have reacted over time.

What happened with you? Perhaps you were awarded a Navy Cross or a Silver Star. I can think of no one, Skipper, who upheld higher standards of character under fire than you did. You were an exceptional leader and I owe you my life for getting us off that hill.

Bill’s reply arrived several weeks later.

Dear Jack,

There is still a part of my memory left that recalls you, not many of my troopers left Vietnam to go to Harvard. I haven’t heard from more than two or three guys who survived “Loon.”

I’ve only been to the wall once; it was one of those snowy cold winter days that shuts D.C. down. My tears froze on my face. Yes, Charlie Company is well represented in black marble. It is up to us, the living to keep their memory alive. We must remember them as they were, laughing, talking, having a beer.

I returned to Vietnam in 1973, my third tour. I guess I got pretty burnt out and became a real problem for my family and the Cops. I did manage to eventually retire in 1981 as a Lieutenant Colonel. My first wife divorced me because she thought I was a little “f***ed up,” she was probably right.

P.S. I was nominated for a Navy Cross, but it was downgraded to a Silver Star. I’m very proud of my Silver Star.

Several days later, I was surprised to receive the following letter from Bill’s wife Myrna:

Dear Jack,

The letter you wrote my husband, Bill Negron, brought him to tears. He believes very strongly that his kids from Vietnam may be suffering. He feels responsible for every man that served with him that didn’t make it home.

Seeking Bill out was important to him. He is proud of you, and I think that’s important for you to know. I wish he could hear from other men that were with him. I never fully understood the meaning of closure or PTSD until I met Bill and other Vets from Vietnam. If you know of any other men that served with you, I’m sure Bill would like to know they made it home.

Bill Negron is probably the toughest, kindest, gentlest man on earth. This is the man I married and the man you fought next to in Vietnam. He is a proud American, and very proud of you too.

From that moment, Bill Negron and I began to track down the lost boys of Charlie Company one by one. Tens years later, I was driven to write our story. It has been at once the most glorious and humbling experience of my life.

A Look Inside Loon

Click on thumbnails for larger images

Combat Boots	A View of LZ Loon	A Young Jack McLean

From Publishers Weekly
McLean's debut is a perceptive memoir of the Vietnam war that is unique for the author's background: McLean joined the Marine Corps after graduating from Phillips Academy, where George W. Bush was a classmate. Making excellent use of more than a hundred letters he wrote home from the war zone from November 1967 to July 1968, McLean reconstructs his time in the Marines with a sharp eye for detail and very readable—at times almost poetic—prose. McLean underwent a hellish tour of duty and in the fall of 1968 became the first Vietnam veteran to enter Harvard. He uses a good deal of reconstructed dialogue to tell his war story, a technique that in lesser hands only cheapens a memoir. But virtually all of McLean's dialogue rings true, as does nearly everything else in the book. That includes this passage in which McLean remembers his baptism under fire a few days after he arrived in Vietnam: It had been eerie, frightening, invigorating, chaotic, and surreal. Welcome to combat. It was not like the movies. (May 19)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"The battle at Loon erupts suddenly and sucks you in. Like Jack McLean, you ask: what am I doing here? The answer is: you joined the Marines and now it's time to fight for your life. A gripping story of violence and dedication to survival."—Bing West, author of The Strongest Tribe

"Loon is a saga of an infantry Marine—the decision to enlist, the intensity of the recruit, mortal combat, and finally transition back to civilian life. This beautifully written story is a must read for all combat warriors, their families, and those interested in the turbulent times surrounding the Vietnam War."—Col H.C. "Barney" Barnum, USMC (Ret), Medal of Honor Recipient

“[This] unique tale . . . is skillfully written and will be among the classic books written about the Vietnam War."—Jan Scruggs, Esq., Founder and President, Vietnam Veterans Memorial

"McLean's debut is a perceptive memoir of the Vietnam war…McLean reconstructs his time in the Marines with a sharp eye for detail and very readable— at times almost poetic—prose."—Publishers Weekly


From the Hardcover edition.

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Customer Reviews

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.

Memoirs of the first Vietnam vet who attended Harvard
Jack McLean grew up a child of privilege. He attended the prestigious Philips preparatory school in Andover, Massachusetts. He could have attended Yale, Harvard, or any other college of his choice -- the world was his oyster. Yet, he chose to enlist in the United States Marine Corps much to the surprise of his family, friends, and teachers at Andover. Boys from Andover didn't join the Marines - they go to college! "Loon: a Marine Story" is the coming of age story for a man who gave up it all to serve his nation at a time when it wasn't popular.

McLean writes "Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam. I was comfortably reared in an upper-middle-class suburb, and my young life was directly out of 'The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'." The book opens looking at the life of a young man of privilege. McLean writes of his experiences at the prestigious Philips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. While not a stellar student at Philips Academy, he was rightfully worried about making it into the 'expected' colleges like Harvard, Yale, or Columbia. After a failed interview at one of these colleges, McLean found himself sitting in a Marine Recruiter's office succumbing to the patriotic peer pressure of men he barely knew.

McLean's memoirs include the expected tale of Marine Corps Boot Camp at Parris Island, South Carolina. Included with his experiences was an incident where he wrote to a friend at home about a drill instructor who struck one of the recruits. During the subsequent investigation, recruit McLean received a lot of unwelcome attention from peers and leadership. McLean eloquently speaks of the powerful lessons of this incident.

McLean enlisted in the Marines to to Vietnam. So the Marines did the expected, and sent him to the supply depot at Barstow, California instead. Here he experienced many of the same things that most regular 20-year olds would -- including a significant opportunity to end an association with a friend who had fractured his moral compass. As the build-up in Vietnam began, McLean finally got orders to go to Vietnam and far away from this negative influence in his life.

His unit was stationed at one of the bridges leading to Khe Sahn. The Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army by-passed the bridge, making it a largely irrelevant target in the grand scheme of things. As such, it was subjected to regular harrasing indirect fire attacks and not many firefights.

The book takes it's title from Landing Zone "Loon", the most intense battle that McLean discusses in his book. This fight is mentioned in both the opening chapter and then again later in the book.

"Loon: A Marine Story" finally offers a unique experience from the Vietnam War in it's closing chapters. During his year in Vietnam, McLean receives a letter of acceptance from Harvard University. As the college students in the United States are burning flags in protest of the war, Corporal McLean is carrying a Harvard sweatshirt in his gear while out on patrol. McLean leaves the Marines and enters Harvard as the first Vietnam veteran to ever attend the University. He concludes the book with writing of his emotional turmoil as he transitioned from combat to the classroom.

For readers looking for the "Full Metal Jacket" experience, you will be disappointed since McLean's unit seems to have been the luckiest Marine Corps unit in Vietnam in 1967 (only one major battle). However, the book is significant in the unique experiences expressed by the author. The concept of a child of privilege going off to war was foreign to many in 1967, and this still a recurrent theme even today. "Loon: A Marine Story" covers the range of emotions experienced by the young men who went to Vietnam and returned to an ungrateful nation. I found "Loon" to be very similar to "Flags of Our Fathers" in that both books tell the story of men burying the emotional experiences of war in order to move on with their lives.

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.