Fate of pilot from first Gulf War still a mystery

[thedrifter]

Fate of pilot from first Gulf War still a mystery

By Alex Neill
Times staff writer



DOHA, Qatar ? Overshadowed by the joyful news of seven American POWs rescued and coming home is the sad story of one who disappeared in Iraq 13 years ago, one whose whereabouts remain a mystery. Lt. Cmdr. Scott Speicher was shot down near Baghdad during Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. Today, a Central Command spokesman said there is no new information on whether he?s alive or dead, no news that has developed out of the current war.
Speicher?s status has never been put to rest since he launched from the aircraft carrier Saratoga flying an F/A-18 Hornet and did not return after a night mission into Iraq. It was the opening day of the war. The 33-year-old naval aviator has been listed as killed in action, missing in action and, since October 2002, as a prisoner of war.

?We remain hopeful that we can recover our missing warrior who?s been gone since the Gulf War,? said Army Brig. Gen. Vincent Brooks, in answer to a question about Speicher during the daily press briefing Monday at Central Command here at Camp As Sayliyah. ?We do not have any additional information, any leads ?? that would help locate him.

Fresh questions about the naval aviator were raised Sunday after Marines recovered seven soldiers who had been missing for nearly three weeks in this war in Iraq.

Five of them were members of the Army?s Fort Bliss, Texas-based 507th Maintenance Company, who were captured March 23 near Nasiriyah after a firefight that erupted when their vehicles were separated from the rest of their supply convoy.

Also recovered were two Army helicopter pilots, missing since their Apache was shot down the next day outside Baghdad. The seven soldiers? return follows the celebrated earlier rescue of Pfc. Jessica Lynch, another 507th member. A multi-service team of commandos grabbed her April 1 during a daring night raid into a hospital near Nasiriyah.

Four other U.S. troops remain missing in the current war and Brooks said there was no new information on their whereabouts, either.

Some of the Navy fliers who were on the same mission as Speicher when he disappeared recalled a particularly bright explosion on the run near Baghdad. They thought Speicher was hit by an air-to-air missile and ejected. But there was no search, no rescue mission.

Speicher was the Gulf War?s first casualty and remains the only person unaccounted for from that conflict.

On Jan. 11, just six days shy of the 10-year anniversary of the start of the Persian Gulf War, then-Navy Secretary Richard Danzig changed Speicher?s official status from killed in action to missing in action, reflecting evidence suggesting he may have survived the shoot-down. His aircraft was later located, in one piece, showing evidence that ejection had been initiated. No remains were found.

Taking into account the evidence of Speicher?s possible survival and capture, the Navy changed his status to POW on Oct. 11, 2002. Speicher was married with two children when he disappeared. Family and friends have kept steady pressure on politicians and Defense Department leaders to work to find him. Several web sites post up-to-date information on the case; one even sells T-shirts, caps, POW bracelets and other items to fund the effort.

?Maybe the Iraqi people will come forward with information,? said Jim Stafford, a high-school friend of Speicher?s and a board member of Friends Working to Free Scott Speicher, a Jacksonville, Fla.-based group that maintains http://freescottspeicher.com/.

?This is probably our last, best chance to get resolution on it,? Stafford said. ?We strongly believe Scott was alive before the war started, and we still have hope that we?re going to get him back.?



Sempers,

Roger