Loon, Jack McLean
Loon, Jack McLean
3 Rating(s)
List: $19.99 | Sale: $13.99
Club: $9.99

Loon
A Marine Story

Author: Jack McLean

Narrator: Chris Andrew Ciulla

Unabridged: 7 hr 29 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 04/23/2019


Synopsis

"Kids like me didn't go to Vietnam," writes Jack McLean in his must-listen memoir. Raised in suburban New Jersey, he attended the Phillips Academy in Andover, MA, but decided to put college on hold. After graduation in the spring of 1966, faced with the mandatory military draft, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps for a two-year stint. "Vietnam at the time was a country, and not yet a war," he writes. It didn't remain that way for long.

A year later, after boot camp at Parris Island, South Carolina, and stateside duty in Barstow, California, the Vietnam War was reaching its peak. McLean, like most available Marines, was retrained at Camp Pendleton, California, and sent to Vietnam as a grunt to serve in an infantry company in the northernmost reaches of South Vietnam. McLean's story climaxes with the horrific three-day Battle for Landing Zone Loon in June, 1968. Fought on a remote hill in the northwestern corner of South Vietnam, McLean bore witness to the horror of war and was forever changed. He returned home six weeks later to a country largely ambivalent to his service.

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

About Jack McLean

The third of four children, Jack McLean was born in Huntington, New York, on May 26, 1947. He was brought up in Summit, New Jersey, where he lived until admittance to Phillips Academy, Andover, at age fourteen. Upon graduation, McLean enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After boot camp and a year on stateside duty, he served in Vietnam with Charlie Company, 1st Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division. McLean returned to enter Harvard University in the fall of 1968 as the college's first Vietnam veteran. After graduation, he held marketing positions in New York; Boston; Portland, Maine; Charlotte, North Carolina; and Washington, D.C. McLean is the father of three daughters and is currently the Tsien Writer in Residence in Fort Lee, New Jersey.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Larry on July 25, 2013

My daughter Anna and author Jack McLean had something in common. They each decided that there was something important s/he wanted to do before beginning college. Anna wanted to go to Cambodia and work in an orphanage. Jack wanted to join the Marines and serve in Vietnam. Each one took the time to pu......more

Goodreads review by Eric_W on June 27, 2014

A disappointing purchase and way over-priced. One of the really positive benefits of the self-publishing revolution has been the number of memoirs being published. Obviously many not polished, but interesting and of considerable historical value. Some are very good, indeed. Others less so. This one f......more

Goodreads review by Scott on July 08, 2013

Having finished Loon: A Marine Story by Jack McLean just a few hours ago, I was frankly at a loss as to how to start this review. Adjectives such as “exceptional” and “sublime” are accurate enough, and yet somehow do not convey the depth of my enjoyment and admiration for this memoir of a young man......more

Goodreads review by Nick Vanderwal on February 10, 2018

I did not read this book in order to publish a critique on the author's literary style or lack thereof. I am completely baffled why anyone would bother to do that. I did read this book in order to gain a perspective on the author's experience. We are/were contemporaries. I wore a different uniform a......more