Looking at the cover of the edition I bought, I think you'd be forgiven if you initally judged Chris Ryan to be a bit egocentric, because it bears the tagline "The real hero of Bravo Two Zero". Being published two years after Andy McNab's account of his experience in the same mission I translated that as "Do you know how difficult it is to escape from Iraq when there's a war on? Those other guys just sat there and people hit them!". Whether or not Ryan himself was responsible for the final cover, I don't know, but I thought it was tactless.

On 29 June 1991 Ryan was awarded the Military Medal "in recognition of gallant and distinguished services in the Gulf in 1991" although the award was not gazetted until 15 December 1998 together with the equally delayed announcement of Andy McNab's Distinguished Conduct Medal. [9] Post-military career [ edit ] The One That Got Away is a 1996 ITV television film directed by Paul Greengrass and starring Paul McGann. It is based on the 1995 book of the same name by Chris Ryan telling the true story of a Special Air Service patrol during the Gulf War in 1991. Coburn also commented on the book: "The portrayal of Vince Phillips was a despicable betrayal of what happened. Revelations became more and more outrageous, culminating in a book and film that saw him portrayed in an unfair and undignified manner.". [9] Chris Ryan was born in 1961 in a village near Newcastle. In 1984 he joined the SAS. During his ten years in the Regiment, he was involved in overt and covert operations and was also Sniper team commander of the anti-terrorist team.

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But the army wasn't enough for Chris. No, he wanted something special. Chris's dream was to be a member of one of the most elite fighting forces on the planet - the SAS (Special Air Service). Chris's cousin was actually already in the reservist SAS and regularly invited Chris to visit him. Chris tried to join the SAS but reportedly failed the selection process because… After the publication of fellow patrol member Andy McNab's Bravo Two Zero in 1993, Ryan published his own account of his experiences during the Bravo Two Zero mission in 1995, entitled The One That Got Away. Michael Asher's investigative book, The Real Bravo Two Zero, released in 2003, also criticised Ryan's portrayal of Phillips. Asher found that many of the negative attributes Ryan had described did not correspond with the available evidence, nor the other patrol members' accounts.

Both Ryan and McNab have similar writing styles: first person, which gives them impression of them telling the story to you personally, and this makes it easy to read even when it gets technical. I would have preferred the introduction into who Ryan was and how he ended up joining the SAS to have been at the start. It's placed in the middle, almost like a dream sequence when they're lying up waiting during the day. During the Gulf War, Ryan was a team member of the ill-fated eight-man SAS patrol, with the call sign Bravo Two Zero. The patrol was sent into Iraq to "gather intelligence,... find a good LUP (lying up position) and set up an OP (observation post)" on the main supply route (MSR) between Baghdad and North-Western Iraq, and eventually take out the Scud TELs. [3] :16Hm... deciding between a two and a three starrer for this one was tough. I ultimately decided for three stars because his account of stumbling through Iraq was interesting. His pub conversation style of story telling carries this type of story very well. During his escape, Ryan suffered injuries from drinking water contaminated with nuclear waste. [8] Besides suffering severe muscle atrophy, he lost 36lb (16kg) and did not return to operational duties. Instead, he selected and trained potential recruits, before being honourably discharged from the SAS in 1994. [ citation needed] The content of the book was heavily criticised by fellow Bravo Two Zero patrol members Mike Coburn and Malcolm MacGown in Coburn's Soldier Five, [2] written specifically in response to this book. After leaving the SAS, Ryan wrote The One That Got Away, which covers the account from his patrol report of the Bravo Two Zero mission. Both his and McNab's accounts have been heavily criticised by former territorial SAS member and explorer Michael Asher, who attempted to retrace the patrol's footsteps for TV and claimed to have debunked both accounts with the help of the then-SAS regimental sergeant major Peter Ratcliffe. [10] [11]

Concerning the TV adaptation of Ryan's book, McNab further wrote in a letter to The Times in 1996, "It is a pity that [Ryan] chose to cheapen his own achievement and the reputations of the regiment and of comrades who would have sacrificed their lives for his, had the situation demanded, by denigrating those of others." [7] The One That Got Away is the 1996 ITV dramatization of Chris Ryan's 1995 account of the Bravo Two Zero mission from the first Gulf War directed by Paul Greengrass ( The Bourne Ultimatum, Green Zone). His book was released after Andy McNab's book, but his movie came out three years before the BBC's dramatization of Bravo Two Zero, both of which were filmed in South Africa using the same armorers. The book and film were highly critical of McNab's leadership before and during the mission. Both Ryan and McNab were criticized for publishing the real names of the three troopers who perished while themselves still hiding behind pseudonyms. A third book about the mission by "Mike Coburn" ("Mark" in the film) was published in 2004, despite opposition from the British government. a b Manger, Warren (27 August 2014). "SAS hero Chris Ryan: I drank radioactive water in Iraq, which meant I'd never have children". Daily Mirror . Retrieved 31 December 2016. Freeman, Simon (16 March 2003). "The new Battle of the Books". The Guardian . Retrieved 31 December 2016.In addition to his writing Ryan has contributed to several television series and video games. In 2002 Ryan co-created and appeared in ITV's action series, Ultimate Force, playing the role of Blue Troop leader Staff Sergeant Johnny Bell in the first series. He acted as a military adviser for the video game I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike. [ citation needed] Interesting to get a new perspective on the parts of the patrol shared with McNab, and equally interesting to see what Ryan had to go through on his long E&E. Easy read. Hard to think about it without comparing to Bravo Two Zero but it stands up on its own, in fact I'm tempted to say I think it's a bit better than McNab's book, though both are good. I read this a couple of years after re-reading Bravo Two Zero, and now I want to read that again just to get a better feel for a comparison. But let's try to avoid that and evaluate The One That Got Away on its own merits. I warmed to Ryan as a character much moreso than McNab. Ryan's obviously proud of who he is, but there's a fair amount of reflection, guilt, and admission of errors too - his own and of others. The introduction should have been a postscript, as it coloured my perception of what happened with Vince. Mild spoilers follow. Yes, Ryan blames Vince for a lot of things, and isn't very kind in his description of Vince's character. More than that, he's pretty much outright insulting about Vince. Whether that's a fair assessment or not we'll never know. It'd be interesting to hear Stan's account. On the whole though I tend to believe Ryan's version of events. Sure, some of it sounds fantastical, and maybe some of it needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. But the broad strokes are undeniable. During the Gulf War, Chris was the only member of an eight-man team to escape from Iraq, of which three colleagues were killed and four captured. It was the longest escape and evasion in the history of the SAS.