Scott Speicher
Encyclopedia
Michael Scott Speicher was a United States Navy
pilot
who was shot down over Iraq
during the Gulf War
. He was the first American combat casualty of the conflict. His remains were not recovered until Aug. 2, 2009. His fate had not been known until then.
on July 12, 1957. Scott and his sister went to Lakewood Elementary School and Eastgate Middle School before attending Winnetonka High School
.
At the age of 15, Scott's family moved to Jacksonville, Florida
, where he attended Nathan Bedford Forrest High School
. After graduating from high school, he then attended Florida State University
. Scott graduated from FSU in 1980 with a bachelor's degree
in accounting and business management. While at Florida State University, Scott met Joanne, whom he eventually married.
Scott's father had been a fighter pilot in World War II
. Scott went on his first airplane flight when he was five years old. When he was a teenager Scott also served in the Civil Air Patrol
. Scott joined the United States Navy and spent several years as a flight instructor on F/A-18 Hornet
aircraft. By the early 1990s, Scott had attained the rank of lieutenant commander
and was stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field
near Jacksonville, Florida. He was assigned to VFA-81
(nicknamed the "Sunliners"), aboard the aircraft carrier
USS Saratoga
. At the time of his deployment to the Iraq theater, Scott and Joanne had a 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. Eighteen months after his disappearance, Joanne married Speicher's best friend Buddy Harris.
fighter when he was shot down 100 miles west of Baghdad, on the night of January 17, 1991, the first night of Operation Desert Storm. His plane crashed in a remote, uninhabited wasteland known as Tulul ad Dulaym 33°14′35.81"N 42°21′18.14"E. He was the first combat casualty for American forces in the war.
The U.S. Navy maintained in a 1997 document that Speicher was downed by a surface-to-air missile
. However, an unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA
report suggests that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi aircraft, most likely a MiG-25
; flown by Lt. Zuhair Dawood, 84th squadron of the IQAF
. Speicher was at 28,000 feet and travelling at 0.92 Mach (540 Knots) when the front of the aircraft suffered a catastrophic event. The impact from the R-40
missile threw the aircraft laterally off its flight path between fifty and sixty degrees with a resulting 6 g minimum load. A pilot on the same mission stated: "I'm telling you right now, don't believe what you're being told. It was that MiG that shot Spike down."
status. 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). In July 1992, Speicher's widow Joanne married Navy Commander Buddy Harris, who was a friend and fellow naval aviator of Speicher's. Harris later became a strong advocate for searching for Speicher, often meeting with U.S. officials.
In December 1993, a military official from Qatar
discovered the wreckage of a plane in the desert, which was subsequently identified as Speicher's aircraft. The canopy was a good distance from the rest of the aircraft, suggesting Speicher had tried to eject. In April 1994, a U.S. satellite photographed apparent human-made symbols on the desert floor near the wreck's location, which might possibly be Speicher's E & E (Escape and Evade) sign, suggesting that Speicher might have survived the crash. A covert American operation to inspect the site was considered, but rejected by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
John Shalikashvili as too risky.
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. Bedouin nomads gave investigators a flight uniform that was likely Speicher's, with his name supposedly cut out of it, but the investigators concluded it had been planted there. Other evidence led investigators to further conclude Speicher had likely ejected, and was not in the plane at the time it crashed. In September 1996, the Secretary of the Navy in a new review reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death. Speicher was given a tomb at Arlington National Cemetery
.
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 Robert C. Smith
in calling for an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee
. The Speicher case was taken up by the National Alliance of Families
, which had been quite active in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue
. 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.
." This was the first time the Defense Department had ever made such a change. In conjunction with the change in classification, Speicher was promoted to commander
, in accordance with Navy practice for POWs held a long time. The 2001 CIA report stated that he may have survived by ejecting. Rumors from Iraq said that Speicher was captive, walked with a limp, and had facial scars. In July 2002, Speicher was further promoted to captain.
Speicher's 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, and on September 12, 2002, 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 a strong interest in the case. Speicher's 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
. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said, "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Capt. Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Capt. Speicher."
Upon the 2003 invasion of Iraq
in March 2003, a major investigation on the ground began, that also further increased public attention to the matter. In April 2003, Speicher's possible initials were discovered in a cell at Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad
. 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. Senator Nelson went to Iraq to visit the prison personally. 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. In any case, Speicher's whereabouts were yet to be discovered.
Over time, as the U.S. occupation increasingly gained control over Anbar Province, it became apparent that Speicher was not a captive.
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.
On March 10, 2009, the Secretary of the Navy declared that Captain Speicher's status was changed from "Missing/Captured" back to "Missing-in-Action."
. His jawbone was used to identify him after study at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs
at Dover Air Force Base
.) According to local civilians, Speicher was buried by Bedouin
s after his plane was shot down. The evidence proved that Speicher did not survive the crash. Senator Nelson attributed the delayed 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."
Speicher's family expressed gratitude that the Defense Department had stayed with the case and that closure was now available. The Christian Science Monitor
termed the case "a veritable saga punctuated with hope, uncertainty, and despair for the past 18 years."
named its tennis
center after Speicher, an avid player. The $1.2 million Scott Speicher Tennis Complex was completed in 2003.
A memorial statue and plaque was erected on Naval Air Station Cecil Field
dedicated to him. The Naval Air Station has since been deactivated.
A memorial head marker dedicated to Speicher stands in Section H of Arlington National Cemetery
in Virginia. The memorial markers are erected when there are no identifiable remains for an individual whose death has been substantiated. Cemetery policy states that if remains are later recovered, the head marker will be interred with the coffin.
In effort to honor Speicher, a former Iraqi air base in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit
was renamed COB Speicher
.
A US Navy F/A-18 "Hornet" on display outside the Naval Aviation Schools Command at NAS Pensacola, Florida, was dedicated to the Speicher family in May 2009. The aircraft was painted in the markings of United States Navy squadron VFA-81
"Sunliners" and USS Saratoga, which was Speicher's squadron and ship when he was shot down. A front-page story in the August 7, 2009 issue of the Naval Air Station Pensacola
newspaper Gosport describes how Speicher's remains were discovered and identified after 18 years. The story has a photo of Speicher's children talking with a member of VFA-81 next to the plane.
On August 13, 2009 the remains of Captain Michael Scott Speicher arrived in Florida 18 years after having been shot down in the Persian Gulf War. The plane containing his remains touched down at Jacksonville Naval Air Station at 3 p.m. Thousands of friends and family gathered for his burial. Captain Speicher's final resting place is at the Jacksonville Memory Garden.
On September 7, 2009 Captain Speicher was honored at the start of the Florida State University football game against the University of Miami at Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium
when a flight
of F/A-18s performed the missing man formation
.
United States Navy
The United States Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the seven uniformed services of the United States. The U.S. Navy is the largest in the world; its battle fleet tonnage is greater than that of the next 13 largest navies combined. The U.S...
pilot
Naval Aviator
A United States Naval Aviator is a qualified pilot in the United States Navy, Marine Corps or Coast Guard.-Naming Conventions:Most Naval Aviators are Unrestricted Line Officers; however, a small number of Limited Duty Officers and Chief Warrant Officers are also trained as Naval Aviators.Until 1981...
who was shot down over Iraq
Iraq
Iraq ; officially the Republic of Iraq is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert....
during the Gulf War
Gulf War
The Persian Gulf War , commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait.The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf...
. He was the first American combat casualty of the conflict. His remains were not recovered until Aug. 2, 2009. His fate had not been known until then.
Early life, education and family
Michael Scott Speicher was born in Kansas City, MissouriKansas City, Missouri
Kansas City, Missouri is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri and is the anchor city of the Kansas City Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Missouri. It encompasses in parts of Jackson, Clay, Cass, and Platte counties...
on July 12, 1957. Scott and his sister went to Lakewood Elementary School and Eastgate Middle School before attending Winnetonka High School
Winnetonka High School
Winnetonka High School is a high school in the North Kansas City School District.The school is located at 5815 NE 48 Street in Kansas City North, Missouri. Winnetonka opened in 1971. Originally built to hold 2,000 students, it now has approximately 1,600...
.
At the age of 15, Scott's family moved to Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
, where he attended Nathan Bedford Forrest High School
Nathan Bedford Forrest High School (Jacksonville, Florida)
Nathan Bedford Forrest High School is a public high school in the Duval County School District located on the Westside of Jacksonville, Florida. Forrest opened in 1959 in Jacksonville's Wesconnett neighborhood, at the site of present-day J. E. B. Stuart Middle School. Forrest moved to its current...
. After graduating from high school, he then attended Florida State University
Florida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
. Scott graduated from FSU in 1980 with a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in accounting and business management. While at Florida State University, Scott met Joanne, whom he eventually married.
Scott's father had been a fighter pilot in World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Scott went on his first airplane flight when he was five years old. When he was a teenager Scott also served in the Civil Air Patrol
Civil Air Patrol
Civil Air Patrol is a Congressionally chartered, federally supported, non-profit corporation that serves as the official civilian auxiliary of the United States Air Force . CAP is a volunteer organization with an aviation-minded membership that includes people from all backgrounds, lifestyles, and...
. Scott joined the United States Navy and spent several years as a flight instructor on F/A-18 Hornet
F/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
aircraft. By the early 1990s, Scott had attained the rank of lieutenant commander
Lieutenant commander (United States)
Lieutenant commander is a mid-ranking officer rank in the United States Navy, the United States Coast Guard, the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Commissioned Corps, with the pay grade of O-4 and NATO rank code OF-3...
and was stationed at Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field or NAS Cecil Field was a United States Navy base, located in Duval County, Florida. NAS Cecil Field was the largest military base in the Jacksonville, Florida, area....
near Jacksonville, Florida. He was assigned to VFA-81
VFA-81
Strike Fighter Squadron 81 , also known as the "Sunliners", is a United States Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana. They are a part of Carrier Air Wing Seventeen, their radio callsign is Zapper, and their tail code is AA...
(nicknamed the "Sunliners"), aboard the aircraft carrier
Aircraft carrier
An aircraft carrier is a warship designed with a primary mission of deploying and recovering aircraft, acting as a seagoing airbase. Aircraft carriers thus allow a naval force to project air power worldwide without having to depend on local bases for staging aircraft operations...
USS Saratoga
USS Saratoga (CV-60)
USS Saratoga , was one of four Forrestal- class supercarriers built for the US Navy in the 1950s. Saratoga was the sixth US Navy ship, and the second aircraft carrier, to be named for the Battle of Saratoga in the American Revolutionary War.Commissioned in 1956, she spent most of her career in...
. At the time of his deployment to the Iraq theater, Scott and Joanne had a 3-year-old daughter and 1-year-old son. Eighteen months after his disappearance, Joanne married Speicher's best friend Buddy Harris.
Loss incident
LCDR Scott Speicher was flying an F/A-18 HornetF/A-18 Hornet
The McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to dogfight and attack ground targets . Designed by McDonnell Douglas and Northrop, the F/A-18 was derived from the latter's YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and...
fighter when he was shot down 100 miles west of Baghdad, on the night of January 17, 1991, the first night of Operation Desert Storm. His plane crashed in a remote, uninhabited wasteland known as Tulul ad Dulaym 33°14′35.81"N 42°21′18.14"E. He was the first combat casualty for American forces in the war.
The U.S. Navy maintained in a 1997 document that Speicher was downed by a surface-to-air missile
Surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
. However, an unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
report suggests that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi aircraft, most likely a MiG-25
Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25
The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-25 is a supersonic interceptor and reconnaissance aircraft that was among the fastest military aircraft to enter service. Designed by the Soviet Union's Mikoyan-Gurevich bureau the first prototype flew in 1964 with entry into service in 1970...
; flown by Lt. Zuhair Dawood, 84th squadron of the IQAF
Iraqi Air Force
The Iraqi Air Force or IQAF is the military branch in Iraq responsible for the policing of international borders, surveillance of national assets and aerial operations...
. Speicher was at 28,000 feet and travelling at 0.92 Mach (540 Knots) when the front of the aircraft suffered a catastrophic event. The impact from the R-40
Bisnovat R-40
The Bisnovat R-40 was a long-range air-to-air missile developed in the 1960s by the Soviet Union specifically for the MiG-25 interceptor, but can also be carried by the later MiG-31...
missile threw the aircraft laterally off its flight path between fifty and sixty degrees with a resulting 6 g minimum load. A pilot on the same mission stated: "I'm telling you right now, don't believe what you're being told. It was that MiG that shot Spike down."
1990s
The day after the shoot-down, Speicher was placed on MIAMissing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
status. On May 22, 1991, after the end of the Gulf War, Speicher's status was changed to Killed in Action
Killed in action
Killed in action is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their own forces at the hands of hostile forces. The United States Department of Defense, for example, says that those declared KIA need not have fired their weapons but have been killed due to...
/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR). In July 1992, Speicher's widow Joanne married Navy Commander Buddy Harris, who was a friend and fellow naval aviator of Speicher's. Harris later became a strong advocate for searching for Speicher, often meeting with U.S. officials.
In December 1993, a military official from Qatar
Qatar
Qatar , also known as the State of Qatar or locally Dawlat Qaṭar, is a sovereign Arab state, located in the Middle East, occupying the small Qatar Peninsula on the northeasterly coast of the much larger Arabian Peninsula. Its sole land border is with Saudi Arabia to the south, with the rest of its...
discovered the wreckage of a plane in the desert, which was subsequently identified as Speicher's aircraft. The canopy was a good distance from the rest of the aircraft, suggesting Speicher had tried to eject. In April 1994, a U.S. satellite photographed apparent human-made symbols on the desert floor near the wreck's location, which might possibly be Speicher's E & E (Escape and Evade) sign, suggesting that Speicher might have survived the crash. A covert American operation to inspect the site was considered, but rejected by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is by law the highest ranking military officer in the United States Armed Forces, and is the principal military adviser to the President of the United States, the National Security Council, the Homeland Security Council and the Secretary of Defense...
John Shalikashvili as too risky.
In December 1995, working through the International Committee of the Red Cross
International Committee of the Red Cross
The International Committee of the Red Cross is a private humanitarian institution based in Geneva, Switzerland. States parties to the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977 and 2005, have given the ICRC a mandate to protect the victims of international and...
, investigators from the Navy and Army's Central Identification Laboratory went to Iraq and conducted an excavation of the crash site. Bedouin nomads gave investigators a flight uniform that was likely Speicher's, with his name supposedly cut out of it, but the investigators concluded it had been planted there. Other evidence led investigators to further conclude Speicher had likely ejected, and was not in the plane at the time it crashed. In September 1996, the Secretary of the Navy in a new review reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death. Speicher was given a tomb at Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
.
In 1997, a Defense Department document leaked to The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
showed that the Pentagon had not been forthcoming with information previously requested by U.S. Senator Rod Grams
Rod Grams
Rodney Dwight "Rod" Grams served the state of Minnesota in both the United States House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate.- Early life :...
. Senator Grams publicly accused the Pentagon of misleading him, and joined with Senator Robert C. Smith
Robert C. Smith
Robert C. "Bob" Smith is an American politician who has served in both the United States House of Representatives and the Senate. He is a member of the Republican Party.-Early life:Smith was born in Trenton, New Jersey...
in calling for an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee
United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence
The United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence is dedicated to overseeing the United States Intelligence Community—the agencies and bureaus of the federal government of the United States who provide information and analysis for leaders of the executive and legislative branches. The...
. The Speicher case was taken up by the National Alliance of Families
National Alliance of Families
The National Alliance Of Families For the Return of America's Missing Servicemen is an American organization founded in 1990. According the group's web site, its goal is to resolve the fates of any unreturned U.S...
, which had been quite active in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue
Vietnam War POW/MIA issue
The Vietnam War POW/MIA issue concerns the fate of United States servicemen who were reported as missing in action during the Vietnam War and associated theaters of operation in Southeast Asia...
. 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.
2000s
In January 2001, the Secretary of the Navy changed Speicher's status to "missing in actionMissing in action
Missing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
." This was the first time the Defense Department had ever made such a change. In conjunction with the change in classification, Speicher was promoted to commander
Commander (United States)
In the United States, commander is a military rank that is also sometimes used as a military title, depending on the branch of service. It is also used as a rank or title in some organizations outside of the military, particularly in police and law enforcement.-Naval rank:In the United States...
, in accordance with Navy practice for POWs held a long time. The 2001 CIA report stated that he may have survived by ejecting. Rumors from Iraq said that Speicher was captive, walked with a limp, and had facial scars. In July 2002, Speicher was further promoted to captain.
Speicher's 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, and on September 12, 2002, President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....
mentioned Speicher in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations General Assembly
For two articles dealing with membership in the General Assembly, see:* General Assembly members* General Assembly observersThe United Nations General Assembly is one of the five principal organs of the United Nations and the only one in which all member nations have equal representation...
as part of his case for war against Iraq. Senator Bill Nelson
Bill Nelson
Clarence William "Bill" Nelson is the senior United States Senator from the state of Florida and a member of the Democratic Party. He is a former U.S. Representative and former Treasurer and Insurance Commissioner of Florida...
of Florida also took a strong interest in the case. Speicher's status was changed again to "missing/captured" on October 11, 2002, one day after the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
authorized the use of military force in Iraq
Iraq Resolution
The Iraq Resolution or the Iraq War Resolution is a joint resolution passed by the United States Congress in October 2002 as Public Law No: 107-243, authorizing military action against Iraq.-Contents:The resolution cited many factors to justify the use of military force against...
. U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said, "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Capt. Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Capt. Speicher."
Upon the 2003 invasion of Iraq
2003 invasion of Iraq
The 2003 invasion of Iraq , was the start of the conflict known as the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq and toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 21 days of major combat operations...
in March 2003, a major investigation on the ground began, that also further increased public attention to the matter. In April 2003, Speicher's possible initials were discovered in a cell at Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad
Baghdad
Baghdad is the capital of Iraq, as well as the coterminous Baghdad Governorate. The population of Baghdad in 2011 is approximately 7,216,040...
. 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. Senator Nelson went to Iraq to visit the prison personally. 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. In any case, Speicher's whereabouts were yet to be discovered.
Over time, as the U.S. occupation increasingly gained control over Anbar Province, it became apparent that Speicher was not a captive.
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
Donald C. Winter
Donald Charles Winter is an American businessman who served as United States Secretary of the Navy. A former top executive of Northrop Grumman, he was nominated in 2005 by President George W. Bush, confirmed by the United States Senate, and took the oath of office on January 3, 2006...
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.
On March 10, 2009, the Secretary of the Navy declared that Captain Speicher's status was changed from "Missing/Captured" back to "Missing-in-Action."
Discovery and positive identification
On August 2, 2009, the Navy reported that Speicher's remains were found in Iraq by United States Marines belonging to MNF-W's Task Force Military Police3rd Battalion 3rd Marines
3rd Battalion 3rd Marines or ' is an infantry battalion in the United States Marine Corps, based out of Kāne'ohe, Hawai'i, and consisting of approximately 800 Marines and sailors.The United States Marine Corps is a part of the Department of the Navy. Traditionally, the Navy has supplied it with...
. His jawbone was used to identify him after study at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs
Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs
The Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs is a Mortuary Affairs facility at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware housing the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center , which combines the functions of both Air Force Mortuary Affairs and Port Mortuary, historically known as Dover Port...
at Dover Air Force Base
Dover Air Force Base
Dover Air Force Base or Dover AFB is a United States Air Force base located two miles southeast of the city of Dover, Delaware.-Units:...
.) According to local civilians, Speicher was buried by Bedouin
Bedouin
The Bedouin are a part of a predominantly desert-dwelling Arab ethnic group traditionally divided into tribes or clans, known in Arabic as ..-Etymology:...
s after his plane was shot down. The evidence proved that Speicher did not survive the crash. Senator Nelson attributed the delayed 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."
Speicher's family expressed gratitude that the Defense Department had stayed with the case and that closure was now available. The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor
The Christian Science Monitor is an international newspaper published daily online, Monday to Friday, and weekly in print. It was started in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, the founder of the Church of Christ, Scientist. As of 2009, the print circulation was 67,703.The CSM is a newspaper that covers...
termed the case "a veritable saga punctuated with hope, uncertainty, and despair for the past 18 years."
Memorials and dedications
The Florida State UniversityFlorida State University
The Florida State University is a space-grant and sea-grant public university located in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a comprehensive doctoral research university with medical programs and significant research activity as determined by the Carnegie Foundation...
named its tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
center after Speicher, an avid player. The $1.2 million Scott Speicher Tennis Complex was completed in 2003.
A memorial statue and plaque was erected on Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field
Naval Air Station Cecil Field or NAS Cecil Field was a United States Navy base, located in Duval County, Florida. NAS Cecil Field was the largest military base in the Jacksonville, Florida, area....
dedicated to him. The Naval Air Station has since been deactivated.
A memorial head marker dedicated to Speicher stands in Section H of Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery
Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington County, Virginia, is a military cemetery in the United States of America, established during the American Civil War on the grounds of Arlington House, formerly the estate of the family of Confederate general Robert E. Lee's wife Mary Anna Lee, a great...
in Virginia. The memorial markers are erected when there are no identifiable remains for an individual whose death has been substantiated. Cemetery policy states that if remains are later recovered, the head marker will be interred with the coffin.
In effort to honor Speicher, a former Iraqi air base in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit
Tikrit
Tikrit is a town in Iraq, located 140 km northwest of Baghdad on the Tigris river . The town, with an estimated population in 2002 of about 260,000 is the administrative center of the Salah ad Din Governorate.-Ancient times:...
was renamed COB Speicher
COB Speicher
COB Speicher formerly FOB Speicher is a US Army Contingency Operating Base captured from the Iraqi Army during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. It was reassigned from a Forward Operating Base to a COB because of its large size...
.
A US Navy F/A-18 "Hornet" on display outside the Naval Aviation Schools Command at NAS Pensacola, Florida, was dedicated to the Speicher family in May 2009. The aircraft was painted in the markings of United States Navy squadron VFA-81
VFA-81
Strike Fighter Squadron 81 , also known as the "Sunliners", is a United States Navy F/A-18E Super Hornet strike fighter squadron stationed at Naval Air Station Oceana. They are a part of Carrier Air Wing Seventeen, their radio callsign is Zapper, and their tail code is AA...
"Sunliners" and USS Saratoga, which was Speicher's squadron and ship when he was shot down. A front-page story in the August 7, 2009 issue of the Naval Air Station Pensacola
Naval Air Station Pensacola
Naval Air Station Pensacola or NAS Pensacola , "The Cradle of Naval Aviation", is a United States Navy base located next to Warrington, Florida, a community southwest of the Pensacola city limits...
newspaper Gosport describes how Speicher's remains were discovered and identified after 18 years. The story has a photo of Speicher's children talking with a member of VFA-81 next to the plane.
On August 13, 2009 the remains of Captain Michael Scott Speicher arrived in Florida 18 years after having been shot down in the Persian Gulf War. The plane containing his remains touched down at Jacksonville Naval Air Station at 3 p.m. Thousands of friends and family gathered for his burial. Captain Speicher's final resting place is at the Jacksonville Memory Garden.
On September 7, 2009 Captain Speicher was honored at the start of the Florida State University football game against the University of Miami at Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium
Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium
Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium is the football stadium on the campus of the Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. It is the home venue for the university's football team, nicknamed the Seminoles. The stadium was named for Doak S...
when a flight
Flight (military unit)
A flight is a military unit in an air force, naval air service, or army air corps. It usually comprises three to six aircraft, with their aircrews and ground staff; or, in the case of a non-flying ground flight, no aircraft and a roughly equivalent number of support personnel. In most usages,...
of F/A-18s performed the missing man formation
Missing man formation
The missing man formation is an aerial salute performed as part of a flyover of aircraft at a funeral or memorial event, typically in memory of a fallen pilot. The missing man formation is often called "the missing man flyby"...
.
See also
- Missing in actionMissing in actionMissing in action is a casualty Category assigned under the Status of Missing to armed services personnel who are reported missing during active service. They may have been killed, wounded, become a prisoner of war, or deserted. If deceased, neither their remains nor grave can be positively...
- Operation Desert Storm
- Mortuary AffairsMortuary Affairsright|thumbnail|A soldier from a graves registration unit attempts identification of a skull during [[World War II]]Mortuary Affairs is a service within the United States Army Quartermaster Corps tasked with the retrieval, identification, transportation, and burial of deceased American and...
- Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary AffairsCharles C. Carson Center for Mortuary AffairsThe Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs is a Mortuary Affairs facility at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware housing the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations Center , which combines the functions of both Air Force Mortuary Affairs and Port Mortuary, historically known as Dover Port...
External links
- POW Network - Bio on Scott Speicher, with information relating to his service.
- http://www.foia.cia.gov/browse_docs_full.asp?doc_no=0000588922&title=INTELLIGENCE+COMMUNITY+ASSESSMENT+OF+THE+LIEUTENANT+COMMANDER+SPEICHER+CASE&abstract=&no_pages=0006&pub_date=3%2F27%2F2001&release_date=5%2F22%2F2001&keywords=IRAQ%7COPERATION+DESERT+STORM%7CSPEICHER+MICHAEL+SCOTT%7CDOWNED+PILOT&case_no=F%2D2001%2D00709©right=0&release_dec=RIFPUB&classification=U&showPage=0001Intelligence Community Assessment of the Lieutenant Commander Speicher Case] - CIA Report on Speicher's case.
- Missing Posters in Arabic and English