No One Left Behind: The Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story

by Amy Waters Yarsinske

Author and former intelligence officer Amy Waters Yarsinske breaks the incredible true story of the first American pilot shot down during the Gulf War - discovered alive 11 years after his own government left him for dead. On January 16, 1991, Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher launches from the USS Saratoga, one of 40 F/A-18 Hornets of which only 39 would return. Moments after an assault by an Iraqi MiG-25, Speicher's plane vanished in a fireball over the Baghdad desert. The next day, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell declared Speicher killed in action - the first casualty of the Gulf War.

Two months later, a Kuwaiti secret police colonel claimed he was in the same hospital as a captured American pilot. Over the years, evidence of Speicher's survival continued to emerge, and on January 10, 2001, Speicher was declared missing in action - the first time in history that a U.S. serviceman's status has been changed.

Tracking this explosive story for the past eight years, Yarsinske has interviewed top government and military officials, diplomats, pilots, informers, and Iraqi defectors. The result is a stunning true account of government denials and cover-ups that obscured an essential Speicher actually survived. No One Left Behind takes us beyond the lies to unearth the truth of the pilot left behind.

Genres: Military Fiction, Biography, History, Nonfiction

Audible Audio

First published May 1, 2002

About the author

A nationally known, award-winning author of 56 books of narrative nonfiction, including the widely read, award-winning No One Left Behind: The Lt. Comdr. Michael Scott Speicher Story for Dutton/NAL, Amy Waters Yarsinske received her master of planning degree from the University of Virginia School of Architecture and her bachelors of arts degrees in English and economics from Randolph-Macon Woman’s College. She is a former president of the Norfolk Historical Society, cofounder of the Norfolk Historical Foundation and a 1998 graduate of CIVIC Leadership Institute. Yarsinske has over two decades of experience in the publishing industry as an author and editor and has made repeated appearances as a guest and commentator for major media, including American and foreign networks and international, national and regional radio markets. She is a member of Investigative Reporters and Editors (IRE), Authors Guild, American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA), and WriterHouse.

Reviews

[Tom Schulte · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an incredible account of an American aviator shot down Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of Operation Desert Storm. This 2003 book came out at a time when it was still not known what had become of Speicher. An unsettling among of evidence is documented that suggested he persisted maybe years among Bedouins and/or captivity as a Saddam trophy. From the backstory to The Falcon and reading books on the Vietnam conflict, I came away thinking of rescue teams as diligent and dauntless. This was not apparently the case during this conflict: "left up to thirty aircrews without rescue attempts". Even in the years since, it is not resolved even with finding the pilot's remains: https://www.pownetwork.org/saudi/sd01...

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad book per se, but it’d be great to have an updated version that includes the 2009 developments.

[Luke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Persistence. In ‘No One Left Behind’ persistence makes a huge impact on the story. When Scott Speicher’s plane goes missing and some detectives give up looking a group of detectives try and discover what happened.

In this book I found most of the pages to be boring mostly just talking about Army lingo only some understand, but at some points in my book when the story was at its peak it was a real page-turner. The last 20 pages of this book were very good and very engaging while the author was explaining stories about what had been heard about Speicher. While the previous 40 pages had been a drawn out explanation of Speicher’s plane parts and such. My book was very difficult to understand mainly because I am not very educated about Army words and planes. For example during chapters where there were explanations of what Speicher is classified as there were many confusing acronyms used such as POW, KIA, DIA, and MIA. This book actually did not make me want to read more books on this topic. This book did not make me want to read more books because I felt like this book already gave me enough information on this topic. In this book I got enough information on what really happened to Speicher. I got to know all the procedures the army went through to try and discover where Speicher really was.

I believe someone who is interested in any main wars or if anyone is interested in planes and detective work. This book would not be great for someone who is already know very educated about the Persian gulf war, war planes, and war stories.

[Lucas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Mostly investigatory and bureaucratic procedural, and interesting when it isn't confusing. There are many different parties all with partially overlapping knowledge, and the author doesn't have a strong enough presence to organize it any other way than move chronologically forward from the point of view of what was made known to the public, but that is out of order with what the events those new revelations were concerned with.

The book was published in the year before the Iraq war, and the possibility of U.S. forces gaining unrestricted access to Speicher's crash site and Iraqi prisons and documents wasn't realized. I read the wikipedia entry on Speicher and found that closure was only achieved a few months ago.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a unbelievable tragedy and abandoning of Lt Cmdr Speicher. This book was almost impossible to put down. The research is impeccable. Her next book is also fantastic. Anyone who followed this story should read this book and her second book about his fate after the shootdown in 1991. I purchased this book and the following book and it was worth every penny.

[colleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

read 07.20.07
Very interesting story of a pilot shot down in Iraq and never recovered. He is believed to have lived for some time. He has never been found.

[Greg · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book brings up many good questions.

[Lee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book hit close to home with me since LCDR Speicher was my hubby's boss when we lived in Jacksonville,FL. I knew the family so I found this account at times disturbing and very sad.

[Mabi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book made me suffer . I was so sad the entire reading. I'm glad I got updated by Google and I hope he did not suffer much.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very informative, but often very confusing with all the military slang used.