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Rating: 
Summary: Why Ribbon Creek?
Review: An extremely informative & detailed read! Stevens iterates a tragic event in Marine Corps history with a direct, thought provoking style. As the current Commanding Officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island, I am encouraging my officers & drill instructors to read this book in order to better understand how close we, the Marine Corps, as an organization, came to being disestablished because of the actions of just one man. Another book of interest on the same subject matter is Keith Fleming's, "The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis: Ribbon Creek & Recruit Training." Another important book in helping to understand how the recruit training process has evolved.
Rating: 
Summary: Too many excuses on behalf of the drill instructor
Review: An extremely informative & detailed read! Stevens iterates a tragic event in Marine Corps history with a direct, thought provoking style. As the current Commanding Officer of the Recruit Training Regiment at Parris Island, I am encouraging my officers & drill instructors to read this book in order to better understand how close we, the Marine Corps, as an organization, came to being disestablished because of the actions of just one man. Another book of interest on the same subject matter is Keith Fleming's, "The U.S. Marine Corps in Crisis: Ribbon Creek & Recruit Training." Another important book in helping to understand how the recruit training process has evolved.
Rating: 
Summary: Revisionist Fluff
Review: Drill Sgt. Matthew McKeon had consumed some quantity of vodka, beer, and whiskey on April 8th, 1956 when he decided that the best way to instill "discipline" in his laggard platoon was to march them, at night, through a treacherous swamp that he had not reconnoitered. Several platoon members could not swim, a fact known to Sgt. McKeon, who nevertheless still plunged foolishly and criminally into the muck and mire of Ribbon Creek where six young men quickly drowned. Sgt. McKeon was arrested and ultimately convicted of negligent homicide and an alcohol-related offense. His nine-month prison sentence was reduced by the Secretary of the Navy to time already served in pre-trial confinement and his Bad Conduct Discharge was rescinded. Sgt. McKeon, now Private McKeon, was permitted to remain in the Marine Corps until he was medically retired in 1959. Judge Stevens correctly portrays McKeon as a stand-up guy who immediately knew the enormity of his actions. It appears that McKeon spent his remaining time in the Corps, and has lived his civilian life, atoning for the conduct that cost six lives. It can not have been easy living with these unquiet ghosts for so long. The Secretary's decision to spare McKeon further jail time and to allow him to remain in the Marine Corps was correct: so was the guilty verdict, for actions this far beyond the pale deserve, and demand, the censure of a criminal conviction. Judge Stevens' slender volume, however, questions both the verdict and the decision to try McKeon in the first place. True enough, the Commandant did proclaim this presumptively-innocent man guilty within days of the incident. Yet this same Commandant later appeared at trial as a defense witness and was allowed to opine that perhaps the proper verdict should be guilty of the alcohol-related offense only and the proper punishment should be the loss of a stripe. Judge Stevens maintains that McKeon was thrown to the wolves for doing nothing more than following established precedent for dealing with a bad training platoon, sort of a "just following orders" defense with a scapegoat twist. Further, it is as hard to portray McKeon's lead civilian counsel, a wealthy personal injury lawyer, as a defender of the constitutional rights of the downtrodden as it is to portray a career Marine as downtrodden, yet that is the tack Judge Stevens takes. The Marine Corps may indeed have a "...propaganda machine that is almost equal to Stalin's," as President Truman once observed, but the Corps is not an evil monolith that would sacrifice one of it's own to the false god of public opinion. Sgt. McKeon was convicted of exactly the charges he was guilty of. Not only was the court's verdict correct but so is the verdict of history. "Court Martial at Parris Island," though far too breezily written for so weighty a subject, bogs down repeatedly in trial-evidence minutiae. And how many times can McKeon's attorney be described as "clever" before the word ceases to have meaning?
Rating: 
Summary: Learning about my father!
Review: I am so glad to have found this book. I am the illegitimate daughter of Charles Reilly whom I knew nothing about since he died one month before I was born. This book not only took me through the trial but also gave me incite to the person he was. Through the years I have only had a home town newspaper article of the incident and was never recognized by his family.
I am sure McKeon did not march the whole platoon into the marsh with the intent that some would surely die and do feel that he has been justly punished for his bad judgement on that fateful night. I could almost feel like I was at the trial by the way Stevens writes. As a former wife of a Marine who spent four years living the "life", I, too, would like to see this depicted on film. I would also like to locate some of the surviving members of Platoon 71 who might have more information of any kind about my father.
Rating:
Summary: A thoughtful and very well written book.
Review: I bought and read this book with every intention of hating it and the author. My uncle was oneof the men in Platoon 71. The author's retelling of the events surrounding the death of several young men was realistic and plausible. The trial participants are described in wonderful detail and dimension. Perhaps the drill instructor was not punished severely enough. His actions immediately after the trial indicate that he had no malice but was guilty of very poor judgement. The author was kind enough to respond to several email questions which I sent him before and after I read the book. The book reflects the shades of grey that we encounter in life. There are few black and white explanations of events such as the one that happened at Ribbon Creek. I agree with another reviewer in my hope to see this event portrayed on film. My only fear is the possible "Hollywood" type treatment it would receive. My only other criticism of the book is the lack of detail about the recruits in Platoon 71. I feel that they were overshadowed by the trial and it's participants. The United States Marines have never apologized to the recruits for their suffering at Ribbon Creek. I do not know if any memorial exists for the dead marines but there should be one. I believe that all the surviving recruits should be located and sent official apologies for the Ribbon Creek tragedy and it's aftermath. Thanks to the author for very well written account of a very sad day in U.S. history.
Rating:
Summary: little-known source
Review: I have not yet read this book, but after reading the reviews, I thought a further recommendation might be helpful. My grandfather, Colonel William B. McKean, was in command of the weapons training battalion at Parris Island when the Ribbon Creek incident took place. He wrote a book about his experiences and impressions called Ribbon Creek. It is out of print but still possible to find through used and rare book stores.
Rating:
Summary: little-known source
Review: I have not yet read this book, but after reading the reviews, I thought a further recommendation might be helpful. My grandfather, Colonel William B. McKean, was in command of the weapons training battalion at Parris Island when the Ribbon Creek incident took place. He wrote a book about his experiences and impressions called Ribbon Creek. It is out of print but still possible to find through used and rare book stores.
Rating:
Summary: Ribbon Creek Review and Commentary
Review: I want to begin my comments by saying this is an excellent balanced book and that Stevens deserves a lot of credit. I would further recommend it to any Marine or others interested in Marine Corps history. I will also state it is my opinion that S.Sgt. Matthew McKeon was a good man who made a tragic mistake. The factors leading up to the events of the evening of April 8, 1956 are manifold and can only be fully understood by reading Stevens' book. My personal perspective comes from having served in the USMCR and the USMC from October 1956 until August 1962 when I was Honorably discharged as a Corporal E-4. I went to Parris Island in early February of 1957 and my recruit training virtually overlaps the events of a year earlier, putting me at the rifle range at about the same time of year. Like all of us who went though boot training, I too pulled butts at the range. The discipline and control there was far different than back at main side so on several days I took the opportunity to spend my entire lunch break walking all over the Ribbon Creek area. I wanted to understand this incident. Definitions from Webster... Marine: Of or relating to the sea. Amphibious: Able to live on both land and in water. Swim: To propel oneself in water...To float on a liquid... DI Motto: Let's be damn sure that no man's ghost will ever say "If your training program had only done its job." And from Chesty Puller we learn the mission of Marine Corps training! "...success in battle..." When I got to Parris Island, I was shocked to see recruits who could not swim had joined a service called the Marine Corps. I also thought it strange the USMC would accept anyone who could not swim, but I guess the Navy does too. How much W.W.II footage have you seen with Marines wading ashore under heavy fire when the Peter and Mike boats could not make it to the beach? Or, in jungles up to their chests and necks in water at Guadalcanal and then all over the south Pacific and Vietnam as well. HELLO! This is the mission! In training "...the nonswimmers had been taught how to float, tread water, and dog paddle. All recruits in the platoon had received ten hours of swimming instruction before April 8." Platoon 71 got themselves into trouble by not following McKeon and by "joking, kidding, and slapping others with twigs while yelling "Snake" or "Shark! Suddenly there was a cry for help and panic broke out..." I had looked closely at Ribbon Creek while at the rifle range and my "vivid" reaction then was someone would need to be retarded or radically incompetent to drown in that area! Several in platoon 71 fit this description. "About three-fourths of the platoon was squared away. But the remainder were foul balls." "For example, eight of the men in Platoon 71 were either illiterate or had General Classification Test scores - approximately equivalent to an IQ test - below 70." McKeon's colorful assessment that 25 percent of the platoon were "foul balls", may not have been far off the mark based on the testimony of several members of the platoon at the trial and in later interviews" "The quality of some of the men under McKeon's tutelage may also be measured by their behavior after completing boot camp. At the time of the court-martial, two men were AWOL from Parris Island, one was AWOL from Camp Lejeune, one had deserted, one was in the brig, and one was awaiting punishment by his commanding officer." Remember these men did not complete their recruit training under McKeon, so other DI's also had a chance to make these guys good Marines. SDI Staff Sergeant Huff had basically washed his hands of the young men under him...Stevens states "McKeon was failing, and he knew it." I think it was SDI Huff who was failing. As far as the charges of being drunk the testimony is flawed and inconclusive. "Not until the court-martial nearly four months later would Dr. Atcheson admit that there was no clinical evidence of intoxication." His own recruits "...testified that there was no evidence that Mckeon was drunk or impaired by drinking". Of all the recruits in the platoon who had made statements "...not one...had anything negative or critical to say about Sergeant McKeon". McKeon was victim of being a nice guy by helping Scarborough with his bottle, allowing him to leave it in the barracks, driving Scarborough to the NCO club and accepting congratulattory drinks he never finished. Granted, McKeon used bad judgement but he was certainly not a bad guy. S.Sgt. McKeon was the first person in the water and he was the last one out. He was leading, not just ordering recruits into an unknown situation. It is empirically obvious that if they had just followed him, as instructed, they all would have gotten back safely. Basic for military training! Bottom line, McKeon was a new junior DI carrying virtually the whole burden of squaring away this platoon. When I got there a year later there was a "Motivation Platoon". I don't know if this approach existed in 1956 but what I saw of the "Motivation Platoon" regimen would have straightened out these "foul balls". Although busted to Private, McKeon was allowed to stay in the Marine Corps. He attempted to rebuild his career, capitalizing on his W.W.II carrier experience. He worked with an all-weather fighter squadron and supplemented his private's pay by working nights in the kitchen of the EM club. Remember he had a wife and kids! Earlier that year he had earned his squadrons "Marine of the Month" award. "With one exception, all of the men interviewed forty years later spoke as highly of their former drill instructor as they had at the trial." Enough said!
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