Customer Reviews

Guns Up!

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I am the wife of a Vietnam Vet. I have read hundreds of books about War written by the men and women who were there. Though all of their stories are deserving of great respect some stand out like the North Star on a black night. "Guns Up" by Johnnie M. Clark is one of these outstanding books. This book takes you to war in Vietnam and it doesn't let you come back the same person. Read it.

Johnnie Clark writes how dangerous it was to be an M60 gunner in Vietnam. When the cry, "Guns Up," was shouted down the line to him...it meant trouble. M60 gunners had a very high casualty rate, because the enemy would concentrate their fire on the most powerful gun to try and slience it. His unit suffered a very high casualty rate. Most of the men he served with, and some were very seasoned bush-soldiers indeed, were gunned down beside him. It's a miracle that Johnnie lived to tell his tale. This book was hard to put down.

I have read GUNS UP! several times and keep returning to it. I have read several accounts of Vietnam, but I keep returning to this one. The way that Mr. Clark is able to take his readers through the gamet of emotions and glories of comradeship felt by Marines in Vietnam makes this book a tribute to the men who fought and died when their country called - whether they believed in the war that they were called upon to fight or not, they were truly "forever faithful".

This is a great read. As I got toward the end of book I found myself slowing
down, because I was enjoying it so much.
As a VN vet myself I had an appreciation for his story of his time in country.
But weather your a vet or not you'll enjoy Mr. Clark's exploits.
Semper Phi John

This is an incredible read. I was given GUNS UP in paper back several years ago and just couldn't put it down. I made the big mistake of letting a friend borrow it. I never saw it again. That book got passed around and I just lost count of who had it last. I finally found a hard back of it and didn't tell anyone that I had it.

Dear Amazon customers, the 21st printing of Guns Up! will be out in 2002. It will have a new cover, photo of Johnnie Clark with the M60 machine gun and 15 to 20 photos of the heros he wrote about. It will also include an epilogue telling what happened to some of those gallant marines after Vietnam. Some of his other books may also be reprinted. Two new books are hopeful at this stage. Thanks, Johnnie M. Clark

I am a Marine Vietnam Vet so this book is like going back in time. I found it very well written, it took me back like I was there in the bush with the Marines. One think I appreciated is that it was accurate, it told the real story behind what happens when young kids go to war and come back men, broken some times but they do come back as men. I could place in my mind exactly what was being described each minute of each operation. I could see the tracers and hear the rifle and M60 fire, something that does not ever leave your memory. This book is an excellent picture of the Marine's Vietnam experience and war. Every day you were tested to the limit. If anyone ever asks if what or how things in boot camp mean anything, ask a combat grunt, he will tell you in a heartbeat that the training will and does save lives. You have to be ready.

This is a great book about the Vietnam War as it was experienced by a soldier. In this book John Clark learns what it is like to participate in a war. He and his friend, Richard Chan, go out and experience one of the worst things, in my mind, that have ever happened. I gave this book five stars for a reason, and if you like war books, you will too.

This book touched me in a way I cant describe. To read this mans life in the "bush" and how he with stood fire from the enemy was awsome. How he stayed alive, how he delt with losses and how he found god in all this "Hell". I am a 16 year old kid who has read books from the Civil War to Vietnam. This one is the top. I cant put it down!!

Guns Up! is a close-up look at the spirit infantry actions ought to have through the eyes of a young Marine in Vietnam. The narrator arrives in Vietnam and becomes a machine gunner in a light infantry unit of Marines. These Marines take the war to the enemy, suffering all of the privation, hardship, and casualties that the infantry suffer in actions like these. Gritty and real, Guns Up! shows the reader why the average volunteer opts for something besides the infantry. Searingly honest, the story tells the reader how ill-used and abused the infantry are; yet their loyalty, courage, honor, and determination keep them giving everything they can until the Reaper comes calling. If every high school student were obliged to read this story, fewer might join the Marines or the Army with delusions, but far fewer would grow up to support needless foreign wars. All would come to appreciate the hard-forged bonds of comraderie only acquired by riflemen in combat.