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Loon: A Marine Story
by McLean, Jack
- Used
- Signed
- first
- Condition
- Collectible - Good
- ISBN 10
- 0345510151
- ISBN 13
- 9780345510150
- Seller
-
Frederick, Maryland, United States
Payment Methods Accepted
About This Item
Synopsis
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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Details
- Bookseller
- Wonder Book
(US)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- J11OS-00525
- Title
- Loon: A Marine Story
- Author
- McLean, Jack
- Book Condition
- Used - Collectible - Good
- Binding
- Hardback
- ISBN 10
- 0345510151
- ISBN 13
- 9780345510150
- Publisher
- Presidio Press
- Place of Publication
- New York
- This edition first published
- 2009-05-19
Terms of Sale
Wonder Book
RETURNS are cheerfully accepted up to 30 days. We ship out within 1-2 business days and U.S. Standard Shipments usually arrive within 6-9 business days, Priority 3-6.
About the Seller
Wonder Book
About Wonder Book
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Title Page
- A page at the front of a book which may contain the title of the book, any subtitles, the authors, contributors, editors, the...
- Inscribed
- When a book is described as being inscribed, it indicates that a short note written by the author or a previous owner has been...
- Half Title
- The blank front page which appears just prior to the title page, and typically contains only the title of the book, although, at...
- Jacket
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- First Edition
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