Loon : A Marine Story by Jack McLean

In the middle of the night I finished reading Loon : A Marine Story by Jack McLean. It’s the memoir of McLean, a son of privilege and wealth who volunteered for the Marine Corps when his grades precluded a quick acceptance into college. The title of the book refers to three bloody days in 1968 he spent battling the NVA at Landing Zone Loon near the Laotian border; forty-three Marines would die before the battle was through, and a photograph of the aftermath would appear on the front page of the New York Times. 

While that’s the alleged focus of the memoir, I found that the section on Loon was the most disjointed and strung together of the book, while recollections of his time at boot camp and his acclimation to Vietnam were meticulous and powerful. Perhaps the memories of those three days are l too strong for him to properly harness them in print.

Overall I felt the book was emotional and compelling, although I’m not a fan of McLean’s tendency to drop one sentence paragraphs back to back to back. Grade: A-