During Operation Desert Storm in the First Gulf War (1991), a US navy pilot of an FA18 Hornet was shot down on 17 January. With the ebb and flow of combat and no exact location available for the site of the wreckage, there was no chance of finding the pilot. Post war, the Iraqis were either unwilling or unable to provide any details on the incident so Captain Micheal Speicher became listed as an MIA, the first such listing since the end of the Vietnam War. The speculation he had been captured and then disappeared remained a hotly debated subject among circles in the Armed Forces and parts of the US government for years.
This morning, the Navy afirmed they had located and were almost 100% certain that his skeletal remains had been identified. Dental records determined the remains were him but final DNA anaylsis is still pending. Last month, Iraqi citizens lead Marines to a burial site where Bedouins had buried the pilot. An Iraqi witness said the pilot had been found dead.
The crash site had been found by Qataris in 1993 who then notified the US. No body had been found by US investigators however. After 2003, US investigators questioned numerous Iraqi prisoners and followed up various leads but the chief suspicion was that Cpt Speciher was dead.
18 years later, Cpt Speicher's remains are finally coming home.
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Comments: 25
This is very sad, but, I am happy for his family, at least they can now move on....... there are just so many, many more that need to be found and brought home too
Great article Charles:)
The US still is pumping the Russians on Americans rumored to have been transferred to their custody during both the Korean and Vietnam wars. That effort has continued regardless of who was inn power in DC for years now.