Customer Reviews

Boy Soldier: Coming of Age During World War II

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I just finished reading "Boy Soldier by Russ McLogan and I recommend it to anyone who is from that generation, anyone who has been in the service or anyone interested in history. Russ worked nine years on the book, although he denies that it was work. He has always enjoyed history, so he says the was merely doing what he enjoys. The book is a remarkable review of the Pacific Theater in World War II, especially the Philippine Liberation and his persistent research has uncovered interesting campaign strategies by both the United States and Japan, while weaving through this war-history the feelings and experiences of a young, naive high school graduate who is trained as a foot soldier and sent to muddy foxholes thousands of miles from his Detroit home to help win the war. Russ reflects on the atomic bomb from the honest and innocent viewpoint of a 19-year-old soldier who longs for home - without all the moral theology of post-war classroom discussions. He has done an amazing job of recalling his feelings, his experiences and his fellow soldiers 50-plus years later. I was concered that the book would be cumbersome (potential publishers had wanted to significantly shorten it), but I found it both interesting and compelling reading, and I highly recomment it.

I had the honor of meeting Mr. McLogan at a book signing where his reading honestly convinced me to buy this book. I now cherish the signed copy I own. This book is exceptionally well written which honestly surprised me, Mr. McLogan is an engineer by trade (so am I). The writing is dynamic, captivating, vivid and sensory. This is an exceptional autobiography combining memories and official documents. This is a phenomenally written book about the life of a young man caught up in the turbulent 40's. That being said, this is not a war book, this is a book about a man's life. Mr. McLogan does not dwell on the time he spent in combat, but does cover that period as well. This book details his life before he was drafted, what training and traveling with the army was like, his wounding, recovery, and as an occupational soldier in Korea after the war and finally going home again. Mr. McLogan does not try to make himself a hero, and in my opinion, he doesn't have to, he simply is.
I have found no better written personal account of a young American's life during the war. This book took my breath away literally; especially the parts where the author reminisces about walking hand in hand with a high school sweetheart while sitting in a foxhole in the Philippines. Mr. McLogan was lucky enough to survive the ordeal and went on to be truly one of the heroes I have always looked up to. Not a war monger or a violent person, but simply a young man who answered his countries call, did his duty, stood his ground and came back and built a life for himself. I only wish my grandfather had written this book!

Boy Soldier vividly gives the reader insight into the thoughts and emotions of an eighteen year old boy thrust into the infantry in World War II. The author is remarkable in his ability to recall the feelings of the "Boy Soldier." Each chapter flowed into the next chapter connecting the events of this great war in the Pacific and capturing the interest of the reader.

I was at the mall during Christmastime and he was sitting in front of the Border's Express. He seemed a little lonely, so I stopped by and talked to him. It was very interesting listening to him talk, especially as he looked up and noticed I was wearing a USS Enterprise Hat (CV-6, not the other) and he started to talk about the Battle of Leyte. After listening to him, I bought a copy of the book and he signed it.

When I picked it up and started to read it, I wasn't disappointed. It was a story I could relate to since he's from this area. He put stuff in comparison to stuff around Detroit and that made it seem more realistic to me. It was a very well written book and very well researched (because he put the bigger perspective with his story).

I enjoyed this book immensely, and strongly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in WWII. I'm a bit of a military history buff, and so have read a good deal on the subject. But I enjoyed Mr. McLogan's book the most, by far. Other soldiers' biographies I've read have covered simply the individuals' combat experiences. While these are always highly interesting, the author of "Boy Soldier" discusses not only his time in battle, but also the experiences he went through both before and after his time on the front lines. I found especially interesting his descriptions of his arduous infantry training, and the details he provided of the lengthy medical treatment he received after being wounding in Luzon. Of interest also were the behind-the-lines duties he had to perform when he first arrived in the Philippines. He also recounts, in detail, the sea voyage he had to endure en route to the Pacific theater and, after hostilities with Japan ended, his voyage to Korea. I learned a lot from this book. For example, I had always believed that all seriously wounded American soldiers in WWII were eventually returned back to the U.S. for hospitalization and rehabilitation. Not true, as it turns out. There are many other lessons in this book. As it is with watching a good movie, you don't want this story to end. It's one of the most entertaining and informative works I've ever had the pleasure of reading.

Very rarely do you find a "history" book that sneaks the history in before you even know it. Russ McLogan does just that in "Boy Soldier." You find yourself caught up in the wonderful narrative of the life of the young boy-turned-soldier. The humor, the violence, the hasty training, are all described within the background of WWII. The historical, social, and political accounts are dead-on accurate--being told by someone who was actually there and has the scar to prove it. This is truly one history book that you will not be able to put down...written by a boy-turned-soldier-turned-historian.

Russell McLogan wrote a great story here and it happens to be his own. I had trouble putting the book down once I started reading. Before I read Boy Soldier, I had a basic understanding of what occurred on the other side of the world at the end of WWII, but from the perspective of a young kid from Detroit, Russ created an intriguing set of images during his explanation of the varied details that led up to the culmination of the conflict that changed our history forever. In addition, he threaded his own story into these details in such a way that made me feel like I knew him personally by the end of his tale. Russ must be a tireless researcher because the intricacy represented in this book almost developed a life of its own. I feel like I came of age a little after reading his story. At the least, I gained an extraordinary level of knowledge about what it was like to serve the United States Army in The Pacific during 1945 and '46. From one Michigander to another, thanks Russ!

A very interesting and well presented book about the liberation of the Philippine Islands and the history of the American 6th Infantry Division. The author does a very nice job of integrating daily life a soldier's story to produce a book that covers a lot of ground easily. I really enjoyed this book as there are not many first person accounts of the Pacific Theater, particularly, from men who where in the Army rather than the Marines. Also has nice description of the events of the war that paralleled the author's experiences.

I was doing some research on World War II, searching for details that history might otherwise forget, when I came across this book. Although this account doesn't go into a lot of combat details, the mundane, day to day, regular soldier stuff is definitely there, and it's very interesting.

COMING OF AGE DURING WORLD WAR II is well written, interesting and full of information. Carefully documented, the account goes through basic training, where being torn down and turned into a killing machine is the army's ultimate goal, and continues on into the war, the atomic bomb, the perception of the public verses the perception of the soldier, and into Korea. A number of maps and photographs are also included, adding to the comprehensive nature of the book.

I highly recommend it to anyone interested in World War II.

McLogan is very much the young, naïve man when he is drafted and sent to Texas for training. He is posted to K Co of the 63rd Infantry Regt of the 6th Division and sees combat in the Philippines in mid 1945. While this is a very big book, the combat phase is reasonably brief, with Mclogan writing extensively about his training and finally Korean occupation service into 1946.

McLogan is an infantryman and he writes of being well received by the veterans when he joins his company on page 129 (he is also impressed when air force personal give up their good seats at the movies for him). Just as well too, as he finds himself under mortar fire shortly thereafter. His combat concludes with being wounded on page 213. In between, he goes on patrols and is shelled but he rarely writes of personally firing on the enemy. He does provide a clear sense of what it was like to be in the infantry in this time and place though. He is also clear on what his unit and others were doing and includes quite a few maps to further inform the reader.

The thing that stands out is the incredible level of back-grounding. McLogan has put a life's worth of research into his story. He writes of the origins of Ft Hood for instance but includes the cost, the speed and the effects on the previous landowners (including suicides). While on the ocean he worries about submarines, then lists the worst sinking's. He gives detailed service summaries of his commanding officers, describes the differences between the various suburbs of Manila and even the number of patients some of his hospitals processed. Some might find this to be unnecessary padding but I found most of it informative. McLogan is extremely thorough, there was much that was informative to me but this may not sit so well with readers looking for an action story. One thing that McLogan achieves with his approach is to convey a sense of what a major undertaking the Philippines operation was and to bring to light the significant post-war involvement in Korea (and the ongoing betrayal of its people). It does remain McLogan's story as he generally integrates all this information successfully around his own experiences. It does all make for quite a long read though. (the last 40 pages are endnotes, references, indexes etc)

Though a memoir of his time in the army, McLogan's story is more about the journey he undertook from youth to man, than about combat. My interest is in battle experiences and my star rating reflects the limited revelations on these lines but this is still an interesting personal story that is surprisingly informative on many levels. I recommend it generally but if you're looking for a more combat oriented memoir see my Pacific War list for something more compelling.