Panel: Continue search for pilot lost in Iraq

[fenway]

Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher missing since Gulf War may have his status changed from missing captured to dead.

according to CNN

Thoughts?

[mel44]

I read this article on Fox News. Does anyone know if this airman is delcared missing/captured, does he continue to draw salary? He was shot down in 1991 so that would mean his family would have been drawing his salary since then? Just wondering. I am sure after this amount of time he is probably dead. The article said he was initally declared dead at the time he was shot down but they reversed it due to lack of evidence.

[CommunityEditor]

WASHINGTON — The family of a Navy pilot missing since his plane was shot down during the first Gulf war isn’t ready to give up hope that he is alive and say they will oppose any decision to declare him killed in action.

The Navy has scheduled a review board hearing for Monday on the status of Capt. Michael “Scott” Speicher, who has been missing since January 1991, when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Persian Gulf War.

The hearing comes several months after the Navy received a fresh intelligence report on Speicher from Iraq.

Speicher’s family, which has seen the latest information, believes Navy Secretary Donald Winter is moving toward changing Speicher’s status from missing/captured to killed, according to family spokeswoman and attorney Cindy Laquidara.

The family — including two college-age children who were toddlers when Speicher went missing — believes the Pentagon should do more to determine definitively what happened, Laquidara said. They see the outcome as setting a standard for future missing-in-action investigations, she said.

“This really is a precedent for every other captive serviceman or woman and it needs to be done right,” Laquidara said. “We’ve looked at the information that’s going to be presented to the board and we feel pretty confident that it’s not time under the standards that they’ve set to change the status. There are things that need to be done before one can be certain.”

Speicher, who had lived in the area of Jacksonville, Fla., was the first American lost in the war.

Some believe Speicher ejected from the plane and was captured by Iraqi forces, and potential clues later emerged that he might have survived: The initials “MSS” were found scrawled on a prison wall in Baghdad, for example, and there were reports of sightings.

The Pentagon has changed Speicher’s status several times. He was publicly declared killed in action hours after his plane went down. Ten years later, the Navy changed his 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.

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.

The Defense Intelligence Agency, which tracks missing-soldier cases and works with other intelligence agencies, submitted its latest report last fall.

“Capt. Speicher’s status remains a top priority for the Navy and the U.S. government,” Cmdr. Cappy Surette, a Navy spokesman, said recently. “The recent intelligence community assessment reflects exhaustive analysis of information related to Capt. Speicher’s case.”

The final decision on changing Speicher’s status must come from the secretary of the Navy; the review board’s decision is only a recommendation, said Lt. Sean Robertson, another Navy spokesman.

Robertson said that once the board meets, it has up to 30 days to complete its report. The family would then have up to 30 days to comment on the board’s recommendation before it is forwarded to the secretary for decision.

The board will be composed of three officers, including one who is experienced in F/A-18 aircraft. The board has a legal adviser assigned and Speicher will also be represented by legal counsel to look after the interests of him and his family, Robertson said.

Laquidara said family members would attend the hearing.

“It’s really easy to put out a yellow ribbon but not so easy to allocate resources to find a missing serviceman or woman,” she said. “If Scott’s not alive now, he was for a very long time, and that could happen to somebody else.”


Article: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/ap_speicher_missing_010309/

http://i252.photobucket.com/albums/hh23/aliceamm/Military%20Times/101408nt_speicher2_500-1.jpg
Navy
Capt. Michael Scott Speicher has been missing
since the first night of Operation Desert Storm,
when his F/A-18 went down in Iraq.

[forcedj]

Does anyone know if this airman is delcared missing/captured, does he continue to draw salary?

Well, he's had two promotions since he went missing. He was a LCDR when he was shot down.

Dan

[forcedj]

I was just wondering about my above post. He was regularly promoted twice...to CDR and then to his current rank, CAPT... since he was shot down in 1991. How would you feel if you were passed over for promotion but saw his name on the list promoted ahead of you???

Dan

[fenway]

I heard on cnn "soldier missing" since 91

I read hear that he was an airman

I rarely hear sailor.

I think forced J has a point, about being promoted but it does keep the pressure on. I personally assume he did not live after the crash, but his family has rights

[AIRFORCEAGGIE]

I was just wondering about my above post. He was regularly promoted twice...to CDR and then to his current rank, CAPT... since he was shot down in 1991. How would you feel if you were passed over for promotion but saw his name on the list promoted ahead of you???

Dan


Promotions for pows do not go against the promotion quotas for that particular paygrade. They are promoted via a special board. Vietnam pows/mias were regularly promoted along with their peers. The last Vietnam official pow was promoted from captain to colonel over the years before he was officially declared dead. Tragically, his widow committed suicide because she couldn't handle the pressure of being the wife of the last official pow of the Vietnam War.

[mel44]

Promotions for pows do not go against the promotion quotas for that particular paygrade. They are promoted via a special board. Vietnam pows/mias were regularly promoted along with their peers. The last Vietnam official pow was promoted from captain to colonel over the years before he was officially declared dead. Tragically, his widow committed suicide because she couldn't handle the pressure of being the wife of the last official pow of the Vietnam War.

That is the sadest thing I have ever heard. :( My late husband was a Vietanm vet but he didn't like talkig about it much.

I was just wondering about the pay thing. It just seems really sad that you can't have a memorial and move on. If he is not declared dead then they are still married all these years. Just a really sad thing. I know taking care of the family is important but I dont think I could let James just be in limbo all this time. I would want to let him be put to rest even if I didnt have his body. Really sad deal

[Pueblo]

That is the sadest thing I have ever heard. :( My late husband was a Vietanm vet but he didn't like talkig about it much.

I was just wondering about the pay thing. It just seems really sad that you can't have a memorial and move on. If he is not declared dead then they are still married all these years. Just a really sad thing. I know taking care of the family is important but I dont think I could let James just be in limbo all this time. I would want to let him be put to rest even if I didnt have his body. Really sad deal

What's also sad is the false hope that gets built up with the tricky POW status. I mean, there were people in the 80s and 90s who clung to a glimmer of hope that their relatives who were declared missing in Vietnam would come home alive. And the military has to play the bad guy when they officially declare them dead. Just heartbreaking...

[Caduceus]

Capt Speicher was promoted to the highest rank possible for a listed missing aviator as an officer. Enlisted can be promoted to E-9 under the same circumstances. Cannot promote to Flag/Gen Officer status, this is an act of Congress.
Speicher was declared MIA, then KIA. Due to the US being unable to locate him or his remains, his family requested he be placed back in to MIA status. Navy agreed and overturned the status.
PFC Matthew Maupin was promoted in the same manner, Staff Sgt, until his remains were recovered and transferred for interment.

[CommunityEditor]

A Navy review board at the Pentagon wants to continue the search for missing pilot Scott Speicher, whose F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq during the first Gulf War in 1991.

The classified review considered fresh evidence obtained in Iraq since the violence there has subsided.

“There is nothing conclusive to say he died,” said Buddy Harris, a family representative who attended the four-day review.

Speicher’s family — including two college-age children who were toddlers when Speicher went missing — believes he may have ejected safely and been captured by Iraqis. His remains were never found.

Potential clues have emerged that he might have survived: After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, U.S. troops found the initials “MSS” scrawled on a prison wall in Baghdad, for example, and there were reports that Speicher was seen alive.

The board’s recommendation will have to be formally approved by Navy Secretary Donald Winter or his successor.

The Pentagon initially declared Speicher killed in action hours after his plane went down. Ten years later, the Navy changed his status to missing in action, citing an absence of evidence that he had died. Then, 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.

In 2005 investigators excavated a potential grave site in Baghdad but found no evidence of Speicher’s remains. Speicher’s family believes more evidence will emerge as Iraq stabilizes and others come forward with new evidence.

Speicher’s family has won support from lawmakerson Capitol Hill such as Sens. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan.

“The fact is, the U.S. government walked away from a downed pilot — mistakenly the secretary of defense declared him dead the day after ... he was shot down,” Nelson told The Associated Press this week, referring to Dick Cheney, then the defense secretary, who went on television and announced the U.S. had suffered its first casualty of the 1991 war. “It is our obligation to keep looking.”

Harris, Speicher’s friend and a former Navy pilot who has since married Speicher’s wife, said he was pleased with the Navy’s handling of the matter.

“There are people in the military that want this to go away, but they are not in the Navy,” Harris said.

“I’m trying to change the military mindset,” Harris said in a Navy Times interview. “It’s important for our service men and women to know that just because nobody can prove it or nobody has seen you alive for the past two or three years, we’re not going to stop looking for you.”


Article: http://www.navytimes.com/news/2009/01/navy_speicher_010909/

[mel44]

Harris, Speicher’s friend and a former Navy pilot who has since married Speicher’s wife, said he was pleased with the Navy’s handling of the matter.

Wow - Now thats a friend! what if he isnt dead? How they gonna explain this one?

I suppose things happen but what if?