Marines recover remains of pilot killed in early days of Gulf War

Los Angeles Times

SAN DIEGO — The remains of a Navy pilot shot down at the onset of the Persian Gulf War — the first U.S. combat casualty of the 1991 conflict — have been recovered by Marines in western Iraq and identified by military specialists.

The findings, based on dental records, appear to bring to an end the lingering mystery of just what happened to Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher.

Since then-Defense Secretary Dick Cheney announced that Speicher was the first U.S. serviceman to die in the war, the military’s inability to locate his body resulted in speculation and controversy. Over the years, his official status changed from missing-in-action to missing-in-action/body not recovered to missing-in-action/captured.

Successive presidents, secretaries of Defense and secretaries of the Navy have wrestled with the mystery and a paucity of hard information. At one point, rumors circulated that the father of two was still alive and being held prisoner by Saddam Hussein.

A recent tip from an Iraqi to Marines, nearly 15 years after wreckage of Speicher’s plane was found in the Iraqi desert west of Baghdad, finally led to the remains. The remains have been identified as those of Speicher by specialists at the military mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

“The teeth are a match, both visually and radiographically,” the military said in a statement Sunday.

In Jacksonville, Fla., Speicher’s family released a statement thanking the Navy for not abandoning the search.

“We will be bringing him home,” said the statement.

Speicher, who was 33, was survived by his wife, Joanne; daughter, Megan, 3; and son, Michael, 1.

Speicher’s father, Wallace, was a Navy pilot during World War II who died in a stateside military plane crash.

Adm. Gary Roughead, chief of Naval operations, notified Speicher’s family Saturday.

“The Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be,” Roughead said.

Speicher’s F/A-18 Hornet was shot down on Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of the war, while on a mission over al-Anbar province.

In 1995, following information supplied by a Qatari military official, investigators from the Pentagon and the International Committee of the Red Cross found the wreckage of Speicher’s plane. Iraqis provided a flight suit with the name tag cut out. But no remains were found.

In 1998 President Bill Clinton speculated that Speicher “might be alive.”

Navy Secretary Gordon England in 2002 said he believed the Iraqi government knew what happened to Speicher but was refusing to help the U.S.

After the U.S. toppled Saddam’s regime in 2003, investigators fanned out across al-Anbar. Fifty sites were examined and many were excavated, including a massive grave outside Baghdad.

An Iraqi document was found that seemed to list Speicher as among U.S. prisoners of war, but analysts found the document inconclusive and possibly fraudulent.

In 2004, Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., beseeched then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to offer a $1 million reward for information leading to Speicher’s return. In 2005, England concluded that there was no credible evidence that Speicher was dead.

Earlier this year, then-Navy Secretary Donald Winter had determined that Speicher’s status was missing-in-action, as opposed to the previous status of missing-in-action/captured.

Over the years, Speicher’s family and high school friends from Florida pressed the military not to abandon the search. Sixty-plus friends formed Friends Working To Free Scott Speicher.

“We are all saddened that our friend did not come home alive,” the group said in a statement Sunday. “We are thankful for the efforts of the military and his family to find him and bring closure to this ordeal.”

The break in the case came when an Iraqi recently contacted Marines with information about the desert crash site. The Marines then found a Bedouin nomad living in the desert who said he was present when Speicher’s plane crashed and when his body was buried by tribesmen at an obscure place called Wadi Thumayal.

The Bedouin’s comments appeared to indicate that Speicher died in the crash and was not held as a prisoner.

Although the dental records match, the military is also running DNA tests for additional confirmation.