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MWSA Review
The Marine Corps Experience by J. A. Clark is a good read for someone contemplating joining the Marine Corps, and it will probably find its way into the hands of parents or family members of a recruit or soon-to-be-recruit. When our son enlisted in the USMC, my wife read every book she could find about what to expect as a mother of a future-Marine.
The Marine Corps Experience gives hope that there is discipline and order provided in boot camp, along with some head-banging necessary to create a modern-day fighting force. I read the book with interest from the standpoint of being a Marine and experiencing much of what Mr. Clark went through. His storytelling is spot-on. It’s easy to forget more than you remember from an intense multi-month training period. Clark's journal of boot camp served him well, as he recounted many minute details of the daily life of a Marine recruit. He does a good job of walking the reader through the Marine experience in Parris Island, and his use of active voice keeps the reader engaged in his progression along the recruit path. You want to see what's coming next.
Kudos to the author for minimizing the typical vulgarity use by Marine drill instructors.
Review by Rob Lofthouse (March 2023)
Author's Synopsis
Parris Island, South Carolina. Marine Corps Boot Camp. An unprecedented first-hand account of the harrowing journey from that petrifying first night on the yellow footprints. Recruit Clark kept a daily journal of his ordeal in meticulous detail and captures the essence of what makes this one of the hardest, most extreme military challenges in the world. And due to the inexorable harshness, a challenge that not all of his fellow recruits were able to complete.
This is the stark day-to-day reality of boot camp from a lowly recruit’s perspective. This is life on the inside, within the ranks, standing at the position of attention in formation. This is being relentlessly harassed by the godawful, unhinged, foaming at the mouth drill instructors and the sometimes humorous, but ever-present affliction.
This is The Marine Corps Experience.
Format(s) for review: Paper and Kindle
Review Genre: Nonfiction—Memoir/Biography
Number of Pages: 427
Word Count: 138K