Jim Bowen Finally Tells His Vietnam War Stories

For decades, Jim Bowen didn't talk about his painful Vietnam War experiences.

Then his son, Clayton, interviewed him on three consecutive Sundays for an American history class at Baylor School.

And then he found letters he had sent home from the war zone to his dad, who carefully preserved them. There were a few letters, too, from some of the men he fought with in his Marine Corps unit in which he was officer in charge.

The book was also spurred by the first reunion, in May 2014, of his Marine Officer Class at Quantico, Va.

Mr. Bowen, who was a central figure in development of Chattanooga's dynamic riverfront, titled his book 100 Hurricanes. It came from the fact he witnessed the destruction of an Operation Arc Light bombing run by U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress based in Guam while in the bloody Arizona Territory. He said, "The earth moved like the force of 100 Hurricanes."

He tells of growing up in Dayton, Tn., while his father worked for TVA during the Watts Bar startup. There was later time at Jasper, Tn., where he finished high school. He was president of his senior class and an All Star in both football and basketball.

He attended UT in Knoxville, but wasn't making the grades like his brother, Maurice, who had become a successful attorney in Chattanooga. Jim Bowen wrote, "My grades were depressing, My love life was depressing. My parents had split up. I could not pay the bank back for my outstanding student loan. My pill and alcohol problems were getting serious. Something had to give."

So he drove to Chattanooga in his 1954 Ford, walked into the downtown Federal Court Building, and enlisted in the U.S. Marines.

The bulk of the book is his telling of his Vietnam experiences - the wonderful brotherhood of the Corps and the lifelong friends he made, as well as the horrors of combat, deaths of some of his young comrades, and the lasting nightmares the war brought on.

The book is dedicated to The Basic School Class 3-69, Charlie Company Marines "who gave their all for the cause of freedom in the Republic of Vietnam."

Anthony E. Kupka

Theodore R. Vivilacqua

Albert O. Nelson Jr.

John H. Lakin

William G. Schanck Jr.

Albert D. Benson

Philip N. Hath II

Cleveland R. Harvey

John I. Lassitter

Click here to order 100 Hurricanes.