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Scott Speicher

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Michael Scott Speicher
Official U.S. Navy photo, circa 1990
AllegianceUnited States of America
Service/branchUnited States Navy
RankCaptain (O-6)
UnitVFA-81 Sunliners
Battles/warsGulf War (Operation Desert Storm)
AwardsPurple Heart

Michael Scott Speicher (July 12, 1957 – c. January 16, 1991) was a United States Navy pilot shot down in the Gulf War. He was the first American combat casualty of the conflict, although his death was not confirmed until August 2, 2009.

Early life, education and family

Speicher was born and grew up in Kansas City, Missouri then moved to Jacksonville, Florida.[1][2] He attended Nathan Bedford Forrest High School there,[1] then attended and graduated from Florida State University in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in business management.[1]

He met his wife Joanne at Florida State and they had two infant children at the time of his shootdown.[1][2]

Speicher was normally stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field near Jacksonville, Florida.[2] At the time of the Gulf War, he was a lieutenant commander, assigned to VFA-81, the Sunliners, embarked onboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga.[2]

Loss incident

Speicher was flying an F/A-18 Hornet fighter when he was shot down over western Iraq, 100 miles west of Baghdad, on the night of January 16, 1991, the first night of Operation Desert Storm.[2][1] His plane crashed in a remote, uninhabited wasteland[2] known as Wadi Thumayal. He was the first combat casualty for American forces in the war.[2]

The U.S. Navy maintained in a 1997 document that Speicher was downed by a surface-to-air missile.[3] However, an unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA report states that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi aircraft,[4] most likely a MiG-25.[2] A pilot on the same mission reveals "I'm telling you right now, don't believe what you're being told. It was that MiG that shot Spike down."[5]

Status

Speicher was promoted twice since he was shot down, first to commander, then to captain, in accordance with Navy policy.

The day after the shoot-down, Speicher was placed on MIA status.[6] On May 22, 1991, after the end of the Gulf War, Speicher's status was changed to Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR).[6] In December 1995, working through the International Committee of the Red Cross, investigators from the Navy and Army's Central Identification Laboratory went to Iraq and conducted an excavation of the crash site.[6] In September 1996, the Secretary of the Navy in a new review reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death.[6] Speicher was given a tomb at Arlington National Cemetery.[7]

In 1997, a Defense Department document leaked to The New York Times showed that the Pentagon had not been forthcoming with information previously requested by U.S. Senator Rod Grams. Senator Grams publicly accused the Pentagon of misleading him, and joined with Senator Bob Smith in calling for an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee.[8] The Speicher case was taken up by the National Alliance Of Families For the Return of America's Missing Servicemen, which had been quite active in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue.[9] Speculative theories were developed as to the circumstances of Speicher's shoot-down, and assuming he was still alive, why the U.S. military might not want to find him and why Iraq might not want to return him.[10]

In January 2001, the Secretary of the Navy changed Speicher's status to "missing in action."[6] This was the first time the Defense Department had ever made such a change.[11][7] The 2001 CIA report stated that he may have survived by ejecting.[4] His status was changed again to "missing/captured" on October 11, 2002, one day after the United States Congress authorized the use of military force in Iraq.

His possible situation became a more high-profile issue in the build-up to war. In March 2002, the Washington Times ran five successive front-page articles about it, National Review Online ran a long piece on it,[10] and on September 12, 2002 U.S. President George W. Bush mentioned Speicher in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly as part of his case for war against Iraq. Senator Bill Nelson of Florida also took an interest in the case.[12]

Despite the 2003 invasion of Iraq and a major investigation on the ground there, Speicher's whereabouts were yet to be discovered. Though there had been a great deal of intelligence gathered, including Speicher's E & E (Escape and Evade) sign left on the desert floor near the crash site along with the discovery of a flight suit believed to be worn by Speicher at the time of his crash, with his name cut out of it, Speicher himself was still missing.

In April 2003, Speicher's possible initials were discovered in a cell at Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad.[12] Investigators did not think it was significant because a similar carving of "MJN" was found directly above the "MSS" scrawl. Subsequent tests on hair found in the cell's drain did not match Speicher's DNA. Speicher's name was also found on a document in Iraq, dated January 2003, that had the names of prisoners being held in the country.

Officials stated that the 90-page document offered no evidence of whether Speicher was alive and might have been written either to provide an accounting of former Iraqi POWs or to confuse the U.S. military.

After the plane crash that left him missing in action, his wife obtained a divorce, as it was not known if he was living. She married Navy Commander Buddy Harris,[13] who was a friend and fellow naval aviator of Speicher's.[1]

On January 5, 2009, the U.S. Navy held a review board to consider officially closing the case. The review board recommended that the Pentagon continue investigating what happened to Speicher. The recommendation went to Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter who had the final decision. Speicher's family believed and was worried that would change the status of Captain Speicher to KIA and declared they would oppose such action.[14]

On March 10, 2009, the Secretary of the Navy declared that Captain Speicher's status was changed from "Missing/Captured" to "Missing-in-Action."[15]

Discovery and positive identification

On August 2, 2009, the Navy reported that Speicher's remains were found in Iraq. His jawbone, which was used to identify him, was found in the desert, where according to local civilians, he was buried by Bedouins following his crash in 1991. [16] Senator Nelson attributed the finding to the culture of the locality: "These Bedouins roam around in the desert, they don't stay in one place, and it just took this time to find the specific site."[7]

Speicher's family expressed gratitude that the Defense Department had stayed with the case and that closure was now available.[7] The Christian Science Monitor termed the case "a veritable saga punctuated with hope, uncertainty, and despair for the past 18 years."[7]

Memorials and dedications

The Florida State University named its tennis center after Speicher, an avid player. It was completed in 2003.[1]

A memorial statue and plaque was erected onboard Naval Air Station Cecil Field dedicated to him. The Naval Air Station has since been disestablished.

In effort to honor Speicher, a former Iraqi air base in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit was renamed Camp Speicher.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g George C. Palaidis (February 16, 2004). "Search for FSU MIA in Iraq Continues". FSView. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Weiner, Tim. "With Iraq's O.K., a U.S. Team Seeks War Pilot's Body." The New York Times, December 14, 1995: A1.
  3. ^ U.S. Navy Aviation, Ch 12, The First Half of the Nineties, U.S Navy, 1997.
  4. ^ a b "Intelligence Community Assessment of the Lieutenant Commander Speicher Case". 27 March 2001. FOIA Electronic Reading Room. CIA. 10 September 2006.page 1, page 2, page 3
  5. ^ Waters Yarsinske, Amy: No one left behind: the Lieutenant Commander Michael Scott Speicher story. New American Library, 2003, page 83. ISBN 0451208676
  6. ^ a b c d e Navy Changes Status Of Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, US DoD, January 11, 2001.
  7. ^ a b c d e Lubold, Gordon (August 2, 2009). "Remains of first US Gulf War casualty solve 18 year mystery". The Christian Science Monitor. {{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ St. Petersburg Times - December 14, 1997 Senate to review gulf war pilot's fate
  9. ^ "Speicher, Michael Scott - Index of stories on Gulf War POW/MIA". National Alliance of Families For The Return of America's Missing Servicemen. Retrieved August 2, 2009.
  10. ^ a b Cmdr. Robert E. Stumpf (March 19, 2002). "Scott Speicher, Prisoner of War". National Review Online.
  11. ^ Ritter, Scott. "Missing in Iraq: The United States has not found Scott Speicher either", Harper's Magazine June 2004: pp 75–77.
  12. ^ a b "Initials may offer clue to missing Gulf War pilot". CNN. April 24, 2003 author=Jamie McIntyre. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help); Missing pipe in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ http://www.news4jax.com/news/2970231/detail.html
  14. ^ Navy may close case of missing Gulf pilot. The Washington Post, January 5 2009
  15. ^ Navy Changes Speicher Status To 'Missing-In-Action', Department of Defense March 10, 2009
  16. ^ Remains Identified as Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher, "Department of Defense" August 2, 2009

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