You Are Not Forgotten: The Story of a Lost World War II Pilot and a Twenty-First-Century Soldier's Mission to Bring Him Home

by Bryan Bender

An inspiring and epic tale of loss and redemption about two American a Marine Corps pilot who was shot down in WWII and the modern-day soldier determined to bring home his remains six decades later

Major George Eyster V comes from a long line of military officers, dating back to the Revolutionary War. Army service was George's family legacy, but his tour of duty in Iraq left him disillusioned and questioning. He was making plans to end his army career but was offered a posting to J-PAC, an elite division armed with the latest detection and forensic technology. J-PAC's sole mission is to fulfill a solemn promise at the heart of the military bring all fallen soldiers home to the country for which they gave their lives.

In 1944 Captain Ryan McCown, a dashing young Marine aviator assigned to the USS Nassau, was shot down over the jungles of Papua, New Guinea. McCown's diaries and letters home to his family and fiancée provide a moving, powerful portrait of the fears and costs of a very different war and underscore the pathos of the ultimate cost of duty.

Eyster's mission with J-PAC eventually took him and his team deep into the sweltering interior of New Guinea in search of McCown's remains. It would be a fraught mission, complete with tropical diseases and black magic, at the end of which Eyster would not only repatriate a fallen veteran and fulfill a promise to deliver him to his loved ones but would also uncover something lost in himself-a sense of purpose in a promise between soldiers that is still worth fighting for.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Military Fiction, World War II, Audiobook, War, Military History

336 pages, Hardcover

First published May 14, 2013

Reviews

[Jen Lorelei · Rating 1 out of 5]

To be honest, I just couldn't get through this book. I wanted to, especially since a woman I hold in high regard has a special connection to it.

I found the premise intriguing, but the writing style turned me off; there was a lot of detail that I didn't feel was relevant to the story itself. Additionally, the narration was so distant (traditionally journalistic in nature) that I didn't feel invested in the people I was reading about. This book reminds me of the non-fiction I avoided as a kid. Now that so much non-fiction uses narrative techniques of fiction, it tends to be my favorite genre. I imagine that lovers of aviation or military history will just adore this. It just wasn't for me.

I do appreciate that this book gave me a better context for the South Pacific during World War II. The extent of my knowledge up to this point was, well, South Pacific ; )

I've been told that the end will make me cry. Perhaps one day, I will get back to it. For now, though, I'll loan it to a student that might better appreciate it.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a fan of military related stories, especially the aviation ones. What is so great about these books is the human aspect of the stories. I really get to know the people and their lives. Also, I share a bond with my dad over these books. It gives us something to talk about in regards to the book world. My dad's father was a Marine. Plus, I love the sky and flying.

Mr. Bender really give the reader the meat and potatoes of Major George Eyster V and Captain Ryan McCown, their lives, who they are as men, and the great accomplishments that they book have achieved in their military careers. I liked reading about both mens' lives and how they entered the military. However, I do have to admit that I did skim a few pages at times as I wanted the book to move along faster. Although, I found the work that George does by helping to locate and bring back the bodies of the fallen intriguing. You Are Not Forgotten is a heart-felt book.

[Megan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had a bit of a rough time getting through the WWII history, but that's because of me, not the writing. I very much enjoyed this book. I picked it up on a whim because it was on my library's Memorial Day display. Highly recommended for history buffs and those who want to know more of the US's POW/MIA mission.

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A MUST READ

This is an outstanding book! We owe everything to our veterans! This story follows two generations of veterans. The sacrifices made by the World War II generation are just incredible. You can’t help but wonder if there’s enough around that would make those sacrifices today.

[Mitch Roberts · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great story about the tireless work that people at JPAC do to try to find the remains of our service men and women who are MIA / POW.

[Mandy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story itself was good, the storytelling felt very sterile and careful.

[Nic · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF
You Are Not Forgotten jumps between modern times with George Eyster V, a modern day soldier, and Ryan McCown, Jr., a WWII pilot who sadly never made it home. When Eyster’s combat days are done, he joins JPAC and begins a search for Ryan, who has been MIA for over 60 years.

Sounds amazing. The execution, however, ruined this book for me. This topic should have been fascinating. It should have been page-turning. Instead, it was painfully dull. For an author, having access to journals, diaries, and copies of IMs must seem like a goldmine, but I think Bryan Bender went overboard in the use of this information. There were so many details that were unnecessary and added nothing to the overall story. Instead of making the book interesting, the excessive details brought the reading down to a snail’s pace and hindered my momentum for turning the next page. I did not need to know the route Ryan drove for his date with Helen. I did not need to know what his mother’s house was like. I did not need page after page after page of George’s IMs to his mother. The fact that he had lost all enthusiasm for the war was well established. It reached a point that continuing to write about that was just beating the readers over the head. I continually found myself saying, Move on, already. Get to JPAC. Get to the story that was promised in the blurb.
I just couldn't continue reading it.

[Steve · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author and Boston Globe reporter Bryan Bender’s subtitle here says it all. This is “the story of a lost World War II pilot and a twenty-first century soldier’s mission to bring him home.” That pretty much tells you all you need to know about “You Are Not Forgotten.” A national security writer for the Globe, Bender employs extensive research and countless interviews to bring the lives of Marion Ryan McCown, Jr. and George S. Eyster V together in this documentary. Bender paints this tutorial on the mission of the Joint Prisoners of War Missing in Action Accounting Command, (JPAC), with a very fine brush. We get lots of intimate details from the lives of both McCown and Eyster. In fact, Bender gets so deep into the biographies of the hunted and the hunter, it reads like a novel. And that’s a good thing. Without it, this would’ve been very dry and academic reading.

Surprisingly, Bender is not squeamish about including Eyster’s personal views of the U.S. military campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. The career U.S. Army officer served in both theaters. Born into a military family, Bender documents how Eyster became very disillusioned about the waste of human lives, (not to mention public tax dollars), in those winless conflicts.

Page 219 is the key to understanding why Eyster and his colleagues at JPAC are so passionate about “accounting for Americans lost during past U.S. conflicts.” Think about it. “So many thousands were lost forever---sailors lost at sea, soldiers who disappeared without a trace on battlefields or in long-abandoned prisoner-of-war camps. JPAC’s task would never be complete. But George now understood that wasn’t the point. Each name that was crossed off the list, each soldier . . . was given a long-overdue homecoming. . . . Most Americans may have forgotten the fallen, but (Eyster) was now the instrument through which the nation remembered.”

As Bender chronicles, the USA’s efforts to bring home its missing war dead was re-born immediately following World War II. “JPAC kept records on more than eighty thousand soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines listed as missing in action. The vast majority were lost in World War II.” However, “the Vietnam War was . . . when the search for missing soldiers began in earnest.” It was that conflict that birthed the iconic POW/MIA flag. That black and white national emblem contains the main title of this true tale of loss and redemption. I came away from this journal with just one question. I wonder how many foreign partners and adversaries of America in the same wars have the same policy toward their own missing members of their own military. Do they have their own JPAC’s? Do they have the same attitude toward those lost in battle: “you are not forgotten?” That could be the subject of Bender’s next book.

[Brinn Colenda · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bryan Bender's "You are Not Forgotten" is a surprisingly good work. He has taken two real-life military members, one a WW II Marine fighter pilot--an MIA for over sixty years--, the other a serving Army officer to illustrate combat conditions in two very different wars (WW II and Iraq). The life threads of these two men are intertwined throughout the book and used to illustrate and explain the lengths the US military is going to research, locate, and bring home our fallen warriors.

Reading the book, I learned what it was like to attend Navy pre-War pilot training and gained a glimpse at what it was like to fly a F4U Corsair in the Pacific (my father flew Corsairs so this was quite personal). The Army officer is both a Ranger and an aviator. His experiences in the Iraqi war are detailed-- the reader can contrast the battlefield conditions and mind-sets of the two men.

About half the book compares the lives and wartime experiences of the protagonists. The last section has Captain George Eyster V, US Army, assigned to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) headquartered in Hawaii. Eyster is promptly sent on recovery efforts in Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, and, surprisingly, to Germany. As a former USAF pilot, I am oriented to aviation, airplanes and pilots. To me, MIAs denoted pilots-- and for Vietnam this is mostly correct. But not WW II-- most of our seventy-three thousand plus MIAs were not pilots nor were the bulk of the three thousand plus Korean War MIAs. Special Forces camps were overrun, soldiers and Marines scattered in fire-fights, sailors went down with their ships. And all these guys were lost in inconvenient places. Eyster and his compadres were routinely sent into some of the most inhospitable geography on the planet, where they often found dangerous conditions, plants, animals and people. My respect for JPAC personnel, already high, skyrocketed. This book shows over and over again just how difficult is their task.

For a non-fiction book written by a reporter, the narrative got into some surprisingly emotional situations. At times I had to put it down and take a few deep breaths.

My second novel, Chita Quest, to be released in March 2014, is a fictional version of a similar scenario-- a present day officer searching for a Vietnam MIA who happens to be his father. I can only hope that readers find my story as compelling as Bryan Bender made this one.

[Betty Montgomery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brian Bender, in his well-crafted book You Are Not Forgotten, tells the story of two American warriors born more than half a century apart, and the sacrifices of both men and their families as they heed the call to war. Although this is a true story about soldiers, this book offers more than a story about men in the military. These are personal stories about family, falling in love, brotherhood, and tremendous courage. The themes in this book are ones that anyone can relate to.

The book focuses on present-day soldier Army Major George Eyster V, and World War II marine aviator M. Ryan McCown Jr. and how their destinies intertwine when Eyster heads up a team to fulfill the marine’s traditional vow to never leave a man behind. In this case Eyster and his team would recover McCown’s remains more than 60 years after McCown’s death.

Bender shows us how Eyster faces the challenges of the war which threaten his faith in the military, and how his faith is renewed when he takes on the challenges of recovering the remains of fallen pilots.

In a parallel story, Bender seemingly congers up the individual lives and personalities of World War II Corsair pilots of days gone by, giving these stories a sense of reality and relevance pertinent to any age. He vividly portrays how these young Corsair pilots, who represented the best and brightest of their generation, were minimally trained and given unsound Corsairs to fly before being thrown into the Pacific Arena against the more seasoned Japanese. The reader is impacted with a real sense of the frailty of life; the risks and sacrifices of these men; and raw courage of these young warriors. This a story of fidelity, sacrifice, duty, and the formidable bond between soldiers, that once forged, can reach over generations and, as the title states, these soldiers are never forgotten.

[Mythili · Rating 3 out of 5]

Boston Globe national security reporter Bryan Bender takes readers through multiple generations of military history in this proud story about honoring the country’s defenders. You Are Not Forgotten traces the lives of two remarkable American soldiers, Captain Marion Ryan McCowan, Jr., and Major George Sensey Eyster V. McCowan, a genteel Charleston native, was serving as a World War II pilot in the South Pacific when he went missing over Rabaul, Papua New Guinea in January 1944. Eyster, the descendent of a long line of warriors tracing back to the Revolutionary War, completed tours in Afghanistan and Iraq before joining the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, or J-PAC. With J-PAC, Eyster became part of a team that traveled the world in order to recover and identify fallen lost American soldiers. Through interviews, journals, logs, letters, emails, and even instant message transcripts, Bender narrates the complex drives that drew both men to serve, the grueling demands of their time at war, and the twists of fate that ultimately bring their stories together.For Eyster, the service of his father, grandfather, and their forefathers were both inspiration and a psychological burden. Eyster would joke that he had a “Lieutenant Dan complex” (ala Forrest Gump); the bravery of the men before him seems to leave him no choice but to follow in their footsteps. Yet he struggles to find clarity of purpose in the frontlines of America’s modern wars. Instead, Eyster finds his calling in the work of returning lost soldiers like McCowan to the loving families they left behind—striving under J-PAC’s motto, “Until They Are Home.”

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles...

[Alissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclosure: I know the author and probably would not have picked up this book otherwise. That said, it is a really good book and I would recommend it, even to people who, like me, don't usually read about military related subjects.

You Are Not Forgotten reads as two separate books. The first half provides detailed insight into the lives of those who serve for our country through one man serving in WWIi (McCown) and another serving in the post 9/11 wars (Eyster). Chapters alternate between McCown and Eyster. I really appreciated how we get to know these men - their childood lives, what compelled them to enlist, their challenges, etc -- because it makes the abstract "military" very real and personal. I will admit at times this section was slow going in terms of reading but it is worth keeping with it.

The last part of the book read incredibly quickly and was fascinating - the work of JPAC to bring home our fallen. We follow several searches, not just the one for McCown,which is why this section of the book seemed like a new book rather then just a continuance of the McCown/Eyster stories we've been following until this point. If anything, I wanted to get to know each of the fallen mentioned as well as I did McCown as I am sure each of them & their families has a story to tell as well.

Regardless of your political views or your thoughts on current events, you will walk away with a new or renewed appreciation for the one percent who serve for our country.

[Jamieson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is the story of two US soldiers who were separated by time but whose lives were interlinked. Marion Ryan McCown was a marine pilot who fought in World War II in the Pacific where he flew a Corsair fighter in the Solomon Islands and vanished during an escort mission over New Britain. George S. Eyster V was an army ranger turned airman who fought in Iraq.

The book alternates between Eyster and McCown starting with their upbringings, military history and war experiances before moving on the McCown's last mission and Eyster's work with J-PAC who hunt down the remains of fallen US armed forces and bring them home. It's here that McCown's and Eyster's join together as Eyster leads the mission that brings McCown home. The ending with bringing Ryan home and the funeral very much had me in tears.

It's an enjoyable book if a bit slow at times. Listening to the audiobook, it was interesting enough to keep going, and though the narrator wasn't outstanding, he was good enough. If you're interested in World War II, this is a good book to give info on the part of the Pacific that isn't quite as popular.

[Emily Morris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Admittedly, I read this book because my imagination and heart overflowed with the idea of fallen soldiers with fates long abandoned and the military effort to bring them home. But what I did not expect to enjoy as much as the solidly presented story of just how this was done and what being part of this mission was like.

In many ways, the book reads almost like a novel, flashing between the lives of two men with respectable writing and description--a bit more accessible than more fact-focused expository writing. The result was nothing short of interesting, a book I just had to keep reading. I loved George of now. I loved Ryan of WWII. And that love made the story of George's mission to recover the remains of missing soldiers all the more powerful. Add in the fascinating summary of just what the program did on an intellectual level, and this was most readable.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I got this audiobook from the Librarything Early Reviewers program, I expected it to be a bit on the dry side, full of facts and numbers. I was pleasantly surprised. The book tells several stories. We meet and ride along with a WWII pilot, learn about his life, his family and his commitment to what he does. We also meet and ride along with a present-day military man, learn about his life, his family name and its legacy, and HIS commitment to what he does. The story is engrossing and I enjoyed listening to it. The narrator is excellent as well, breathing life into many characters that might have otherwise seemed one dimensional. Definitely recommended for war buffs.

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received the audio version of this book as part of the GoodReads Giveaway Contest. Overall, I think this book was a good blend between historical narrative and general storytelling. While the history of WWII and more modern day conflicts were brought up and delved into, I never felt like I was just reading a bunch of facts, I was more-so reading about the protagonists' lives. The author, I feel was able to convey a lot of the historical detail by just telling the stories of Ryan McCowan and George Eyster. I particularly found the sections relating to J-PAC and Eysters time while there interesting. I'm not really one for listening to audio books, but I did find this one enjoyable.

[Patty · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is a U.S. military division devoted to bringing fallen soldiers home from wars abroad. I was so moved by this story in part because the author dug deeply into the lives of the real men this is about so I got a sense of "knowing" them. This line from the book explains the other part: "His uncle Ryan also managed to accomplish one last mission, bestowing a final gift from the grave. He reunited the McCown clan."

[Dan Simonsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gripping story masterfully told. The author used an interesting technique of switching between the stories of a missing World War II Marine pilot and a current day army officer assigned to the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (J-PAC).

This audiobook is on 9 disks. The sound and quality are excellent. Johnny Heller has an engaging voice that draws you into the story.

Now for the legal language: I won this audiobook on goodreads.com.

[Will · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book will go on my shelves next to Lone Survivor and Unbroken! Ironically I finished this book on Pearl Harbor Day. This story is a great reminder of the sacrifices that the WWII generation made for this country; and the importance to never forget that sacrifice.

Awesome story with an incredible ending. I wish I could rate it higher than 5 stars!

[Edward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-written book. What I found most interesting about the story was the description of the Corsair, which I hadn't read in any depth before, and the work of J-PAC. I'd heard of the organization before, but had little idea of what the actual conditions of searches and recovery are. I think I need to research J-PAC some more, but this was a great inside introduction.

[John Dorcey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the story and Bender's storytelling is superb however the blending of the two primary stories did little for the book's overall readability. In truth, I found this concurrent storyline or blending of the stories to be distracting. Similarly, I found the late addition of several other MIA's not adding to the story.

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book, I really did. I think I was "hoping" that the story would be more about JPAC and less about the lives of McCown and Eyster. Not that those stories weren't/aren't interesting, but at about page 95 I had to give up. I would have probably finished if there had been more about Eyster's tour of duty at JPAC.

I wish I could have finished this book....

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story that gives insight into the sacrifice and compassion exemplified by generations of soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and others, and how these scarce traits bring together families, friends and communities.

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a surprising and wonderful story! reads like a novel, not like a history book, which I loved. It's amazing what a full picture of the lost pilots was able to be told!

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bender's book is a fantastic, heartbreaking yet triumphant story that will appeal to the patriot in all of us.

[Kbarr77 · Rating 3 out of 5]

President Calvin Coolidge: "A nation that forgets its defenders will be itself forgotten." This pretty much sums up this book.

[SkipO · Rating 2 out of 5]

Fair book, way too much about G Eyster

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not thrilled with how the story was told; back and forth in time made me a little crazy. BUT I could not put this down! Great topic and really enjoyed it!

[Kim · Rating 3 out of 5]

good story -- glad to know their is a group pursuing this mission

[Janine Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is well worth the read