"McCoy's Marines" by John Koopman  

     Among the many Nebraska men and women who have seen military duty in Iraq since the spring of 2003, John Koopman, a former marine and an “embedded” reporter for the San Francisco Chronicle, gives his readers a first-hand accounting of the war in his newly published book, “McCoy’s Marines, Darkside to Baghdad”.
     From the staging efforts in Kuwait to the actual invasion and the pulling down of the statue of Saddam Hussein, Koopman was with the 3rd Battalion, 4th Marine Regiment of the 1st Marine Division, and in particularly, he was riding with Lt. Col Bryan McCoy, the battalion commander.
     “I wanted a good, hard-charging infantry battalion, one that would get into a fight and be good enough to get out without getting me killed,” Koopman writes. “Furthermore, I wanted a tough, no-nonsense commander who wasn’t afraid of anything. I lucked out by getting both Bryan McCoy and the Three-Fours. They became the hardest charging troops of the war thus far.”
     “McCoy’s Marines” combines journalism and combat with candid views of the war and vivid scenes of the brutal realities of killing—whether necessary or not.
      When the Three-Fours completed its tour and returned to their Mojave Desert home base, Koopman was there to describe the return. A year later, the battalion returned to Iraq, this time to fight the growing insurgency. Koopman went along with them again and continued the story of the Three-Fours fighting a different type of war.
     Koopman is a 1976 graduate of Howells High School. Following a four-year tour with the Marines as a radio mechanic on amphibious landing crafts, he returned to Nebraska. Koopman graduated from the University of Nebraska, School of Journalism and worked for the Palm Beach Post and later worked at the Omaha World Herald for four years before moving to San Francisco in 1990. He is currently working for the San Francisco Chronicle where he writes news features. Koopman is married and has one son. His parents, Lucille and John R. Koopman, live in Columbus. He is the nephew of Theresa and Tom Kumpf.
     Other recent books on the Iraq War owned by the Library include: “A Hundred and One Days : a Baghdad Journal” by Asne Seierstad; “Masters of Chaos : the Secret History of the Special Forces” by Linda Robinson; “Chain of Command : the Road from 9/11 to Abu Ghraib” by Seymour M. Hersh; “The Fall of Baghdad” by Jon Lee Anderson; “In the Company of Soldiers: a Chronicle of Combat” by Rick Atkinson; and “Baghdad or Bust” by Mike Ryan.