Questions Linger After Speicher Announcement
By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Aug 3, 2009 21:22:24 EDT
_______________________________________
Family and friends of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher say questions remain
about the fighter pilot’s death despite the Navy’s announcement
that his grave was found near his plane’s 1991 crash site.
“Where were the remains? How did they get there? How long did
they stay there? There’s still a lot to be determined,”
said Buddy Harris, Speicher’s friend and a former Navy pilot who
has since married Speicher’s widow.
Speicher, the only American who remained missing in action from Operation
Desert Storm, was shot down on Jan. 17, 1991, while flying a combat
mission in an F/A-18 Hornet over Anbar province in west-central Iraq.
VIDEO
On Monday, Navy officials were unable to say precisely where Speicher’s
remains were found, whether that grave was marked or whether the military
plans further testing to determine the date of the death.
The bones were matched using dental records and the U.S. Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology is also conducting DNA testing to confirm their
identity, said Navy spokesman Cmdr. Cappy Surette.
In January, Speicher’s formal status was changed from “missing/captured”
to “missing in action.” His status may change soon to “killed
in action,” a Navy official said.
The Pentagon initially declared Speicher killed. But uncertainty, conflicting
reports and the lack of remains fueled speculation that the 33-year-old
pilot may have survived the crash and been taken into captivity.
The latest evidence suggests he did not survive the crash. According
to Rear Adm. Frank Thorp, Speicher was buried by Bedouins shortly after
he was shot down. He said remains found near the crash site, including
a jaw bone, were positively identified as Speicher’s.
In July, Thorp said, Marines in western Iraq received information from
a local resident about the crash of an American jet and the burial of
its pilot.
“One of these Iraqi citizens stated that they were present when
Captain Speicher was found dead at the crash site by Bedouins and his
remains buried,” Thorp said. “The Iraqi citizens led U.S.
Marines to the site.”
Yet the news was greeted with skepticism by some of Speicher’s
friends and family, who for years have complained that some military
leaders did not do enough to find the remains and resolve questions
about Speicher’s status.
“It really just blows me away…to suggest that he was killed
at that crash site. There is just too much evidence to suggest otherwise,”
said Nels Jensen, one of Speicher’s high school friends who for
years maintained a Web site called “Friends Working To Free Scott
Speicher.” The site was shut down several years ago.
Jensen, who now lives in Arkansas, pointed to potential clues that
Speicher may have ejected from the plane and was captured by Iraqi forces.
The initials “MSS” were found scrawled on a prison wall
in Baghdad, for example, and there were reports of sightings.
Ten years after the Gulf War, the Navy changed Speicher’s status
to missing in action, citing an absence of evidence that he had died.
In October 2002, the Navy switched his status to “missing/captured,”
although it has never said what evidence it had that he was ever in
captivity.
Speicher, a lieutenant commander at the time of the 1991 crash, has
since been promoted to captain.
Another review was done in 2005 with information gleaned after Baghdad
fell in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which allowed U.S. officials
to search inside Iraq.
The review board recommended then that the Pentagon work with the State
Department, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and the Iraqi government to
“increase the level of attention and effort inside Iraq”
to resolve the question of Speicher’s fate.