My Life & Lens - Bob Bowen

     Virginia SAR's own Bob Bowen, Virginia SAR President (2010-11), Vice President General (2007-8), Historian General (2012), Minuteman Class of 2009, has lived a life that few could survive.  He has, and now his memories are available to us.  To quote but a little of what others have said:

     "Captain Robert L. Bowen’s memoir details his military experiences during Vietnam and beyond.

     "The writing bug bit Bowen early: In the seventh grade he won a school essay contest, and later did publicity for a church youth group. At 16, he got a job in the mailroom of his local newspaper, advanced to copy boy, and began writing freelance stories. But without a college degree, Bowen decided advancement in newspapers would be impossible. So at 19, he enlisted in the Marine Corps. He served 20 years in the Corps, including four tours as a combat correspondent in Vietnam. He also spent 14 years with the Voice of America, and two years with the State Department and Department of Justice.

     "To be clear, Bowen was not a desk jockey during his military career, but a boots-on-the-ground participant. His 20 months of combat operations in Vietnam, he writes, included “countless patrols, rocket attacks, lonely outposts, hospital visits, flights in every imaginable kind of aircraft, and walks in the sun.” As he recounts those adventures and details the stories he filed for military publications and his many other duties through the years, his writing is tight and complete, befitting a career journalist; it’s highly detailed and well-organized.

"My Life and Lens: The Story of a Marine Corps Combat Correspondent".  Captain Robert L. Bowen, USMC, Retired. iUniverse, 388 pages, (paperback) $28.99, 9781532016479 (Reviewed: May 2017) 

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