Fresh Navy review results in continuing probe for missing pilot

March 10, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following a fresh review, the U.S. Navy today decided to reclassify as “missing” the Florida pilot shot down over Iraq in the first Gulf War - saying there’s no evidence that he’s being held inside Iraq, or is “missing-captured.”  But the decision won’t end the government’s effort to determine the pilot’s fate, according to U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson.

Captain Michael Scott Speicher, of Jacksonville, was the first American lost in the 1991 war with Saddam Hussein’s forces to liberate Kuwait.  On the first night of the war, Speicher, then 33, flew a combat mission from the USS Saratoga.  He was piloting a Navy F/A-18 Hornet that was struck by a missile fired by an Iraqi aircraft and went down on Jan. 17.

Then-Vice President Dick Cheney was quick to declare Speicher dead.  But the Navy later changed his status to "missing in action;" and, changed it again in 2002 to "missing-captured" after a review board concluded Speicher likely ejected from his aircraft and may have been captured by Iraqi forces.

Sen. Nelson, a Florida Democrat, was instrumental in pushing the Navy for the 2002 re-examination of the case on behalf Speicher’s family.  Nelson also prodded the Pentagon into launching an exhaustive search for Speicher following the invasion of Iraq in 2003.  

The family of Capt. Speicher said through a spokeswoman today they feared Navy Secretary Donald C. Winter was poised to change the pilot’s status from missing-captured to killed, which would have meant an end to the search, the family said through a spokeswoman.  The family, including two college-age children who were toddlers when their father went missing, remains hopeful the Navy will be able to solve the mystery of what happened.

In an early morning telephone call to Nelson, a top Navy official said there’s no reasonable basis to determine that Speicher is being detained.  The Navy secretary based his decision on his own review of the findings of a Navy board of inquiry that in early January recommended Speicher’s status be maintained as missing-captured.

“This change in status will have no effect on the ongoing search to determine Scott's fate,” said Nelson, a member of the Senate’s Intelligence and Armed Services committees. And as our presence in Iraq decreases, we need to take this last opportunity to determine his fate.  This is our duty as a nation to any missing service member.”

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