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Name: Michael Scott Speicher
Branch: United States Navy
Rank at Loss: Lieutenant Commander
Current Rank: Captain
Unit: Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 81 (USS Saratoga)
Aircraft: F/A-18C Hornet
Born: July 12, 1957
Age at Loss: 33
Current Age: 48
Home City of Record: Jacksonville FL
Date of Loss: 17 January 1991
Original Status: MIA
Status Changed: May 1991 KIA/BNR
Status Changed: 11 January 2001 - MIA
Status Changed: 11 October 2002 - POW
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FROM FRIENDS WORKING TO FREE SCOTT SPEICHER
09 January, 2007, Jacksonville, FL—
In January of 1991, the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, was initiated. On the night of January 17, the Air Craft Carrier USS Saratoga launched the first waves of fighter jets into the pitch-black night sky. One of the pilots, flying a Navy F-A/18 fighter-attack jet, was Lt. Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher. Speicher was a very experienced pilot by all accounts, having a tremendously successful career as a Navy flier. Nobody expected that he would not return from that night’s maneuvers; if anyone could make a successful strike and return unharmed, it would be Speicher. But somehow, something went wrong.
Lt. Commander Scott Speicher never returned.
It has now been 16 years, almost to the day, since that night. Friends and family have waited, sometimes patiently, sometimes not so patiently, to know what happened to Speicher in the time since he was last seen. It’s a mystery that may never have a satisfactory ending, but one that has not been forgotten, either—not by the nation, not by the US Navy. In absentia, due to a total lack of evidence that he had perished, Scott Speicher was promoted twice by the Navy, and now has the rank of Captain. Though the times of waiting have been difficult and complex, the waiting, praying and hoping still continues.
We may never have the answers we seek, but we will continue to keep our hope alive that one day we will know. Every time a Navy jet flies overhead—the engines screaming, the wings soaring with a glorious, flashing brilliance against a blue Jacksonville Florida sky, we will hope. We will pray. We will think of our friend and fellow citizen/soldier and ask God for His constant watchcare over Scott, wherever he is.
By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer
Thursday, September 8, 2005
(09-08) 10:09 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
A Navy pilot shot down over Iraq in January 1991 may have been captured by Iraqi forces, and members of the former Iraqi government "know the whereabouts" of the officer, the Navy has concluded.
A Navy board of inquiry concluded that there is no credible evidence that Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher is dead, and it reaffirmed his official status as "missing/captured," according to the board's final report.
The board also recommended 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.
Navy Secretary Gordon England approved the report on Wednesday, according to Lt. Erin Bailey, a Navy spokeswoman.
The Iraqi government under President Saddam Hussein maintained from the start that Speicher perished at the site where his F/A-18 fighter jet crashed in the desert. No evidence to contradict that has surfaced since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003, but the new Navy inquiry concluded there was no credible evidence of his death, either.
Tampa Tribune - Frank Davies - July 8, 2003
WASHINGTON - New secret evidence has surfaced during an intensified search for clues concerning the fate of Florida fighter pilot Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy captain once presumed dead after the downing of his aircraft over Iraq 12 years ago.
Sen. Bill Nelson, a Florida Democrat and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after a visit Monday to a prison cell in Iraq and meetings with U.S. military leaders that fresh, highly classified evidence presented new leads that might solve the case.
Nelson's comments came as U.S. forces have stepped up efforts not only in the search for weapons of mass destruction but for signs of Speicher, often quizzing Iraqis about both topics simultaneously. Documents have been scoured at Baghdad prisons, and the military has interviewed former Iraqi prisoners. But Nelson refused to discuss the nature of the fresh clues. ``I cannot tell you what the evidence is,'' he said in a telephone conference call with reporters. ``But there is new evidence, and the clues to me are promising.''
Added Nelson, who weeks ago had given up hope of finding fresh leads: ``I am personally optimistic on the basis of what I saw. I had thought everything had come to a dead end.'' A $1 million reward for information offered by the Pentagon also may help, Nelson said.
Members of the Iraq Survey Group, a 1,400-member team searching for weapons of mass destruction, are also seeking information on Speicher. ``One of the first questions'' is often about Speicher, Nelson said.
Asked whether the new evidence suggested Speicher was alive, Nelson replied, ``I don't have any proof on that. But it clearly gives me some optimism we have a much better chance than I thought of resolving the question of Capt. Speicher.''
Nelson's unusual one-day foray into Iraq in a convoy of armored vehicles and helicopters included a stop at the prison where some believe Speicher might have been held, including a firsthand look at the initials ``M.S.S'' carved on the wall of a 10-by-15-foot cell upstairs at the Hakmiyah prison.
The carving cut through a layer of beige paint to a red layer underneath, Nelson said. If the initials were Speicher's, it would suggest the pilot was imprisoned there, and thus alive, at a later time in the 1990s than thought.
Nelson described the cell as ``a pure hell hole'' with ``no windows, an iron door, a small opening in a door that can be closed shut.'' He saw torture equipment in the basement.
Also Monday, the senator met in Iraq with members of the Florida National Guard unit of Jeffrey Wershow, a 22- year-old specialist from Gainesville who was killed at close range by an unidentified gunman on the campus of Baghdad University. Wershow was assigned to the Army's 3rd Infantry Division.
Asked whether too many American soldiers were dying in Iraq, Nelson responded, ``the soldier from Florida was one too many.'' |
Associated Press - April 23, 2003 WASHINGTON (April 23) - American investigators in Iraq have found what may be a clue to the only American missing from the first Gulf War: the initials of Navy pilot Michael Scott Speicher, etched into a prison wall in Baghdad. It is unknown who scrawled the letters ``MSS'' into a cell wall in the Hakmiyah prison, said U.S. officials, or whether the letters had anything to do with the missing pilot. The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said an informant had also reported that an American pilot was held at that prison in the mid-1990s. A joint team of officials from the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency is in Iraq, searching for clues to Speicher's fate. Lt. Cmdr. Speicher, an F/A-18 Hornet pilot from Jacksonville, Fla., and three other pilots flew off the USS Saratoga for a bombing run over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, the first night of the war. During the mission, another Hornet pilot saw a flash and lost sight of Speicher. The next morning, the Defense Department announced that Speicher's plane had been downed by an Iraqi missile. Several months later the Pentagon classified the pilot as killed in action, but changed that last year to ``missing in action, captured.'' Intelligence reports from several sources led to the change, officials said. Iraq officials have said Speicher was killed in the crash. Speicher's flight suit was found at the crash site and there have been persistent intelligence reports about a U.S. pilot held in Baghdad. Only one U.S. service member remains listed as missing from the second Iraq war - Army Sgt. Edward J. Anguiano, 24, of Brownsville, Texas, who disappeared after his convoy was ambushed March 23.
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| | | March 23, 2003 - Breaking News Team to search for pilot lost since first Gulf war __________________________________________________________________________
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
__________________________________________________________________________ Defense and intelligence agencies have formed a special unit that will go into Iraq to search for Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, a missing U.S. Navy pilot believed to have been held captive in Iraq since 1991. Creating the special unit comes as U.S. intelligence agencies reported last week that an American pilot believed to be Capt. Speicher was spotted alive in Baghdad earlier this month.
A classified intelligence report circulated to officials March 14 stated that Capt. Speicher was seen as he was being moved in Baghdad, although officials said the sighting could not be confirmed. The joint program by officials of the Defense Intelligence Agency, the CIA, U.S. Central Command and other agencies also will conduct a nationwide search of Iraq for terrorists and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons, said Lt. Cmdr. James Brooks, a DIA spokesman.
"The intelligence community has established a unit to do a country-wide discovery, exploitation and interrogation effort to identify and disrupt terrorist operations; and to identify, examine and eliminate [weapons of mass destruction]," Cmdr. Brooks said in a statement.
"Another function is to determine and resolve the fate of Capt. Speicher," Cmdr. Brooks said.
Capt. Speicher was declared killed in action after his F-18 jet was shot down by a missile over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991.
Later, intelligence reports indicated that his plane had crash-landed and that Capt. Speicher had ejected. His flight suit was later found during a Red Cross mission to Iraq.
Several intelligence reports from the 1990s also indicated that Iraq was holding an American pilot believed to be Capt. Speicher, and in 2001 the Navy reclassified him from killed in action to missing in action.
In October, Navy Secretary Gordon England changed the status again to "missing in action, captured," effectively declaring Capt. Speicher a prisoner of war.
The Navy determined at the time that wreckage from the F-18, the recovery of Capt. Speicher's flight suit, Iraqi tampering with the downed plane and recent intelligence "continues to suggest strongly that the government of Iraq can account for him."
Baghdad has denied that it was holding Capt. Speicher and invited a U.S. team to visit Iraq last year to investigate. The Pentagon and State Department declined the offer.
U.S. officials hope the ouster of Saddam Hussein in the U.S.-led war will produce definitive proof on whether Capt. Speicher is a prisoner or whether he died in captivity.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told reporters yesterday that finding terrorists and deadly unconventional weapons are among eight key U.S. objectives in Iraq.
Mr. Rumsfeld said the United States hopes to "identify, isolate and eventually eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, their delivery systems, production capabilities, and distribution networks."
U.S. forces also will "search for, capture, drive out terrorists who have found safe harbor in Iraq."
The troops also will "collect such intelligence as we can find related to terrorist networks in Iraq and beyond" and intelligence on "the global network of illicit weapons of mass destruction activity," the defense secretary said.
Sen. Pat Roberts, Kansas Republican and chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in an interview that he and other interested members of Congress have "come a long way from where we were," a reference to bureaucratic resistance to pursuing the Speicher case.
"Every hearing we have, every [congressional delegation] we have, we always mention this issue," said Mr. Roberts, whom intelligence agencies brief regularly on the Speicher case.
The Kansas senator said the Pentagon's Defense Prisoner of War Missing Person Office and the DIA are working on a new assessment of the case, based on the numerous intelligence reports that indicate Iraq is holding an American pilot.
"We're talking about a considerable number of people [in Iraq] who say they've seen an American POW," Mr. Roberts said.
The senator said he is holding out hope for the day when "we see him getting off an airplane" as a free man.
Saddam has admitted holding some POWs for decades. On Tuesday, Iran and Iraq exchanged about 200 prisoners captured by each side during their eight-year war in the 1980s, according to reports from official Iranian and Iraqi news services.
The Washington Times disclosed in March 2002 that U.S. intelligence agencies had new information indicating that Baghdad was holding an American pilot believed to be Capt. Speicher.
A U.S. intelligence report produced in March 2001 stated that "we assess that Iraq can account for Capt. Speicher, but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate."
The report also stated that Capt. Speicher was "either captured alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad."
It also concluded that Capt. Speicher "probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis." | |
NAVY CHANGES STATUS OF CMDR. MICHAEL SCOTT SPEICHER Secretary of the Navy Richard Danzig has changed the status of Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher from Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR) to Missing in Action (MIA). Speicher's F/A-18 aircraft was shot down by enemy fire in the first day of the air war over Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991. He was placed in an MIA status the next day. On May 22, 1991, following a Secretary of the Navy status review board that found "no credible evidence" to suggest he had survived the shootdown, his status was changed to KIA/BNR. In December 1995, working through the International Committee of the Red Cross, investigators from the Navy and Army's Central Identification Laboratory entered Iraq and conducted a thorough excavation of the crash site. In September 1996, based on a comprehensive review of evidence accumulated since the initial KIA/BNR determination, the Secretary of the Navy reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death. Over the years since that determination was made, the Navy and the U.S. government have consistently sought new information and continued to analyze all available information to resolve Speicher's fate. This additional information and analysis, when added to the information considered in 1996, underscored the need for a new review. Based on the review, Danzig has concluded that Speicher's status should be "Missing in Action." (Source: United States Department of Defense News Release, January 11, 2001) |
Department of Defense Act For FY 2003 - S. 2515 SEC. 1035. Reports on efforts to resolve whereabouts and status of Captain Michael Scott Speicher, United States Navy. (a) REPORTS- Not later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, and every 90 days thereafter, the Secretary of Defense shall, in consultation with the Secretary of State and the Director of Central Intelligence, submit to Congress a report on the efforts of the United States Government to determine the whereabouts and status of Captain Michael Scott Speicher , United States Navy. (b) PERIOD COVERED BY REPORTS- The first report under subsection (a) shall cover efforts described in that subsection preceding the date of the report, and each subsequent report shall cover efforts described in that subsection during the 90-day period ending on the date of such report. (c) REPORT ELEMENTS- Each report under subsection (a) shall describe, for the period covered by such report-- (1) all direct and indirect contacts with the Government of Iraq, or any successor government, regarding the whereabouts and status of Michael Scott Speicher ; (2) any request made to the government of another country, including the intelligence service of such country, for assistance in resolving the whereabouts and status of Michael Scott Speicher , including the response to such request; (3) each current lead on the whereabouts and status of Michael Scott Speicher , including an assessment of the utility of such lead in resolving the whereabouts and status of Michael Scott Speicher ; and (4) any cooperation with nongovernmental organizations or international organizations in resolving the whereabouts and status of Michael Scott Speicher , including the results of such cooperation. |
Pilot believed alive, held in Iraq -- March 11, 2002
By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES U.S. intelligence agencies have obtained new information indicating Iraq is holding captive a U.S. Navy pilot shot down during the Persian Gulf war, The Washington Times has learned. British intelligence provided the CIA and Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) with the new information several months ago, and intelligence officials said it could assist in the ongoing investigation into the fate of Navy Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher. Cmdr. Speicher was declared killed in action in 1991 after his F-18 Hornet was shot down over Iraq. But last year he was re-classified as "missing in action" by the Pentagon, based on information from an Iraqi defector. According to U.S. intelligence officials, the British intelligence information was based on an additional intelligence source; someone who had been in Iraq and said he had learned that an American pilot is being held captive in Baghdad. The British report stated further that only two Iraqis were permitted to see the captive American pilot: the chief of Iraq's intelligence service, and Uday Hussein, son of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, said the officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The new intelligence has led some Pentagon officials to believe Iraq is holding Cmdr. Speicher prisoner. One U.S. official said the new agent offered to identify the exact location in Baghdad where the American is being held and also offered to obtain a photograph of the prisoner. A defense official said the new information is not related to an earlier report from an Iranian pilot who was repatriated recently to Iran and said that he had seen an American held prisoner in Iraq. "That was checked out, and the intelligence community didn't find anything about it," the defense official said. President Bush has been briefed on the new intelligence on Cmdr. Speicher and the likelihood of an American POW in Baghdad is being factored into U.S. policy toward future operations against Iraq, the officials said. DIA spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Jim Brooks said the Speicher case is "an active investigation." The agency "investigates and continues to investigate all reports regarding the Speicher case." He declined to comment further on specific reports on the case. A White House spokesman could not be reached for comment. It could not be learned if the Bush administration is taking steps to contact the Iraqi government about Cmdr. Speicher. However, U.S. intelligence agencies are continuing to gather information on the case, the official said. The CIA sent a notice to Congress Feb. 4 saying it had obtained new intelligence related to Cmdr. Speicher and is expected to provide more information in a briefing that could come as early as this week, one official said. A U.S. intelligence report from March 2001 stated: "We assess that Iraq can account for Cmdr. Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate." The report, ordered by the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that Cmdr. Speicher "probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis." The report stated that Cmdr. Speicher's aircraft was shot down by an Iraqi jet firing an air-to-air missile, and that the jet crashed in the desert west of Baghdad. An unclassified summary of the report, "Intelligence Community Assessment of the Lieutenant Commander Speicher Case," was obtained by The Times. The intelligence community report said that after the Gulf war cease-fire, Cmdr. Speicher was not among the 21 U.S. military personnel released, nor were his remains returned. The new intelligence information bolsters an earlier report from an Iraqi national. In 1999, an Iraqi defector reported to U.S. intelligence officials that he had taken an injured U.S. pilot to Baghdad six weeks after the Gulf war began. He identified Cmdr. Speicher in a photograph as the pilot. Based on the defector report and pressure from Sen. Robert C. Smith, New Hampshire Republican, the Navy changed Cmdr. Speicher's status from killed in action to missing in action on Jan. 11, 2001. The intelligence community report stated that during an investigation of the crash site in 1995, Iraqi officials provided investigators with a flight suit that appeared to be the one worn by Cmdr. Speicher. The flight suit had been cut. The intelligence report concluded that the pilot "probably survived the crash of his F/A-18." "We assess Lt. Cmdr. Speicher was either captured alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad," the report said. Mr. Bush has called Iraq one of three "axis of evil" states, and there have been intelligence reports indicating Iraq may have supported the September 11 attacks. The government of the Czech Republic monitored a meeting in Prague between an Iraqi intelligence officer and Mohamed Atta, regarded by U.S. investigators as a ringleader for the September 11 attacks. Senior Pentagon policy-makers have said Iraq should be the next target for U.S. anti-terrorism operation. Cmdr. Speicher was the pilot of a Navy F-18 jet that was shot down by enemy fire on Jan. 17, 1991, the first day of combat operations in the Gulf war. Defense Secretary Richard B. Cheney said during a news conference that same day that the pilot had been killed, and the Navy declared Cmdr. Speicher killed in action five months later. The intelligence community report said that Iraq's government learned that the pilot was declared dead and as a result felt it probably did not have to account for him at the end of the war. At first the Pentagon believed Cmdr. Speicher's aircraft was hit by either a ground- or air-fired missile and broke up in flight. But the aircraft was later found intact and its canopy was found some distance from the crash, a sign the pilot had ejected. The CIA also was told about the capture of an American pilot in the early 1990s but dismissed the information as coming from an unreliable agent, the officials said. The agency later acknowledged its dismissal was an error, U.S. officials said. |
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