Johnnie Clark

Guns Up! is a red-blooded war memoir by a Marine machine gunner. Clark's war was ugly: arriving in-country just after the Tet offensive, he marched through minefields, terrible weather, and endless jungle and mountain patrols. The big M60 that he carried was a life-saver for the squad, but the stream of orange tracers guaranteed return fire, and machine gunners reportedly had a 7.5 second life expectancy in combat (I want to know which RAND analyst figured that out, and who told the grunts.) show more There's battles, ambushes, and all the stock characters of war. Do the Marines issue giant guys named Red, taciturn Indians, and Boston snobs at a rate of one per platoon? What makes Guns Up! exceptional is the friendship between Clark and his alphabetical buddy since bootcamp, Richard Chan, a brilliant and devout Chinese-American who serves as a kind of moral center in an amoral universe.

This isn't Dispatches or Where the Rivers Ran Backward, and Clark tells his story directly. One thing that stands out is that combat troops were used hard: Clark is either in the field or in the hospital. He lost 40 pounds in six months, from marching, stress, and bad food. His interactions with the country were entirely through gunsights. Friends die or are seriously injured and replaced with boots, and the squad keeps going on after objectives that don't change the course of the war. Authority, such as it is, are corporals and rumors over the radio net about what the rest of the battalion is up to.

This book is also robustly Christian, and Clark is very upfront that Jesus saved his life; page 58 is where his Bible stops a shard of shrapnel from hitting his heart. This leads him to censor some of the language, but not the stories. Sam the Blooper Man carves numbers into NVA dead and carries a dried ear on his helmet. ARVN break under a night assault and get gunned down by the Marines. The squad almost gang rapes a dying NVA nurse. Somehow, the macho Christianity works. show less

Johnnie Clark's memoir of his time as a marine heavy gunner in Vietnam, a job that he is told has a life expectancy of seven seconds once a fire-fight begins. The book covers the period from his first arrival in country to the time he is shipped back to the world. My edition also included a new epilogue where Johnnie discusses what happened to his squad mates (the ones he was able to track down) after the war.

I was surprised at how much I enjoyed the writing. Clark has a very smooth and show more natural writing style that gives the feeling of reading a page turner. Yet it never feels like he is skimping on the details. He is very good at working facts in to the narrative, so you never feel lost even if you know nothing about the Vietnam war. It helps that it starts with Johnnie as a 'boot' just arrived from boot camp.We learn the ropes along with him.

The author is a very religious man, which resulted in a couple of... I don't know... quirks I guess. First, the book has been scrubbed of cursing. There is some 'rough language' in the book, but nothing that couldn't pass in a PG movie. It was strange never to hear marines swear, but it didn't in any way harm the book. He did use the word 'fag' a lot, which I disliked, but after all, it is his memoir and it was a different time. I won't knock the book for it.

The book also had quite a bit of proselytizing. Johnnie is a Christian, so a bit was to be expected, but there were a couple of times where it intruded on the narrative. If this were a fiction book, that would be a fault, but since this is a non-fiction, first person account I can let it slide.

I do give Johnnie credit for not whitewashing his own actions in Nam. He was willing to admit when he was scared and fesses up to some embarrassing actions that it would have been just as easy to cover up. These admissions make everything else much more believable and made him a more trustworthy narrator to me.

Also, though I mentioned that the language was sanitized, nothing else is. He describes the violence and gore of the war in a plain, straight-forward manner. He is not trying to glorify war or the horrors the soldiers on both sides endured. Not everything the soldiers did over there was honorable and he doesn't shy away from that. He describes in detail the unbearable heat, the jungle diseases, the tension of laying in the mud, preparing an ambush, only to have a snake slide across your neck right when you should fire.

This book is a required read in some schools and I can see why. I got from it what I was hoping: a detailed account of a grunt marine's time in Vietnam. That it was well written and engaging was a pleasant surprise. show less

A book which I hadn't heard of beforehand but was well written and told a fast paced story of a 17yr old's Vietnam tour of duty. Humorous, tragic and detailed with excellent dialogue, this book about US Marines in I Corp is somewhat jargon filled but there is a glossary at the end. I've learned a lot about Life from Vietnam memoirs. This is a good one. Clark was an infantryman carrying an M-60 machine gun. Not enamored with the Green Berets or the rear echelon troops, or the 101st, Clark show more does not hold back on the Marine culture either. I wanted the book to be longer but it was sad enough at its current length. There was an interesting squad member of Clark's named Chan who provides a biblical perspective on life and war. This is unusual for a Vietnam memoir. show less

I've read Johnnie Clark's first book, "Guns-Up" maybe about twenty years ago and loved it and was surprised when I saw "Semper Fidelis" offered by the same author and quickly downloaded it. I wasn't disappointed!

This is a story about three high-school friends who join the Marines on the buddy plan right after graduation. It's 1967 and Shawn is the main character. All three end up in Vietnam, in fact, Shawn and Luke went to the same squad in the 5th Marines and were quickly assigned as the show more Machine gunner and assistant. Their other friend, Joe went to another unit.

Right from the start, both are alienated and basically ignored by their fellow squad members and it didn't take long before the call for "guns-up" echoed through the line of soldiers when the enemy was spotted. Shawn was quite religious and soon befriended the division chaplain. The platoon is guided by a North American Indian sergeant referred as "The Chief" and a formidable lieutenant as they hump endlessly through the jungles looking for the elusive enemy. The author's writing made me feel as if I was right there with the platoon - characters are well developed and readers will chose their favorites as time goes on. As the lunar New Year (TET) arrived, readers follow the platoon to Hue where they participate in house-to-house fighting and learn of the atrocities by the communists.

After six months, the three friends meet in Australia for R&R that doesn't work out quite the way they intended. Nevertheless, they all return to Vietnam refreshed and renewed for the second half of their tour. It is a difficult time for all of them - they've already been wounded twice and one more time was an automatic trip out of the war. However, their exit may not be as they hoped. They patrol through the An Hoa Valley, Khe Sahn, Phu Bai, and finally in the "Arizona Territory" for a showdown at "Dodge City" where firefights become the norm every day and night.

Johnnie Clark also shows readers what it was like when veterans returned from Vietnam. Protestors met the Marines upon their arrival in the U.S. - shocking most as they were blamed for everything that happened during the war. It was an extremely difficult time for all. This is a book that everyone should read to get an understanding of what these young men experienced and the sacrifices they endured.

Johnnie Clark - thank you for this story...thank you for your service...Welcome Home!

John Podlaski, author
"Cherries - A Vietnam War Novel" and "When Can I Stop Running?" show less