Scott Speicher

Michael Scott Speicher (July 12, 1957 – January 17, 1991) was a naval aviator in the United States Navy who was shot down over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War becoming the first American combat casualty of the war. His fate was not known until 2 August 2009, when the U.S. Navy reported that Speicher's remains had been found in Iraq by the United States military. He is also the most recent American to have been shot down in air-to-air combat.

Early life and education

Michael Scott Speicher was born in Kansas City, Missouri, on 12 July 1957. After graduating from high school, he then attended Florida State University (FSU). Speicher graduated from FSU in 1980 with a bachelor's degree in accounting and business management.

Speicher's father had been a fighter pilot in World War II. Speicher went on his first airplane flight when he was five years old. Speicher was a cadet member of the Civil Air Patrol as a teenager. Upon graduation from FSU, Speicher joined the U.S. Navy and attended Aviation Officer Candidate School at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. After flight training at various bases, he was designated as a naval aviator and spent several years as both a fleet squadron aviator in the A-7 Corsair II and F/A-18 Hornet and as a flight instructor on the F/A-18. However, an unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA report suggests that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi aircraft, most likely a MiG-25, flown by Lieutenant Zuhair Dawoud Al-Tamimi, 96th squadron of the IQAF. Speicher was at 28,000 feet and travelling at 0.92 Mach (540 knots) when the front of the aircraft suffered a catastrophic event. The impact from the R-40 missile threw the aircraft laterally off its flight path between fifty and sixty degrees with a resulting 6 g minimum load.

Status and investigations

1990s

The day after the shoot-down, Speicher was placed on MIA status. who was a friend and fellow naval aviator of Speicher's, The Speicher case was taken up by the National Alliance of Families, which had been quite active in the Vietnam War POW/MIA issue. Speculative theories were developed as to the circumstances of Speicher's shoot-down, and assuming he was still alive, why the U.S. military might not want to find him and why Iraq might not want to return him.

2000s

In January 2001, the Secretary of the Navy changed Speicher's status to "missing in action". This was the first time the Defense Department had ever made such a change. In conjunction with the change in classification, Speicher was promoted to commander, in accordance with U.S. Navy practice for POWs held a long time. The 2001 CIA report stated that he may have survived by ejecting.

Speicher's possible situation became a more high-profile issue in the build-up to war. In March 2002, The Washington Times ran five successive front-page articles about it, National Review Online ran a long piece on it, Investigators did not think it was significant because a similar carving of "MJN" was found directly above the "MSS" scrawl. Subsequent tests on hair found in the cell's drain did not match Speicher's DNA. Senator Nelson went to Iraq to visit the prison personally.

On 10 March 2009, the Secretary of the Navy declared that Captain Speicher's status was changed from "Missing/Captured" back to "Missing-in-Action."

Discovery and positive identification

On 2 August 2009, the Navy reported that Speicher's remains were found in Iraq by United States Marines from 3rd Battalion, 3rd Marines. His jawbone was used to identify him after study at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base. According to local civilians, Speicher was buried by Bedouins after his plane was shot down. Senator Nelson attributed the delayed finding to the culture of the locality: "These Bedouins roam around in the desert, they don't stay in one place, and it just took this time to find the specific site."

Speicher's family expressed gratitude that the Defense Department had stayed with the case and that closure was now available. In 2018, FSU President John Thrasher joined members of Speicher’s family to unveil a new memorial honoring Speicher. The memorial, located at the entrance of the tennis facility named after him in 1993, features a bronze Navy pilot’s helmet and oxygen mask and will eventually include a bronze Navy G-1 flight jacket and naval officer's khaki garrison cap similar to what Speicher would have worn.

A memorial statue and plaque were erected on Naval Air Station Cecil Field and dedicated to him. The Naval Air Station has since been deactivated but the facility remains in operation as a joint civil–military airport.

A memorial head marker dedicated to Speicher stood in Section H of Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia as of 2002. The memorial markers are erected when there are no identifiable remains for an individual whose death has been substantiated. Cemetery policy states that if remains are later recovered, the head marker will be interred with the coffin.

In effort to honor Speicher, a former Iraqi air base in the northern Iraqi city of Tikrit was renamed COB Speicher.

A U.S. Navy F/A-18 Hornet on display outside the Naval Aviation Schools Command at NAS Pensacola, Florida, was dedicated to the Speicher family in May 2009. The aircraft was painted in the markings of United States Navy squadron VFA-81 "Sunliners" and , which was Speicher's squadron and ship when he was shot down. A front-page story in the 7 August 2009 issue of the Naval Air Station Pensacola newspaper Gosport describes how Speicher's remains were discovered and identified after 18 years. The story has a photo of Speicher's children talking with a member of VFA-81 next to the plane.

On 13 August 2009, the remains of Captain Speicher arrived in Florida 18 years after having been shot down in the Persian Gulf War. The plane containing his remains touched down at Naval Air Station Jacksonville at 3 p.m. Thousands of friends and family gathered for his burial. Captain Speicher's final resting place is at the Jacksonville Memory Garden located in Orange Park, Florida.

On 7 September 2009, Captain Speicher was honored at the start of the Florida State University football game against the University of Miami at Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium when a flight of F/A-18s performed the missing man formation.

On Memorial Day 2010, an American flag and a wooden cross bearing his name were commissioned, adding him to the Clay County Florida Parade of Flags.

Family

Speicher was married to JoAnne and they had two children.

In the early months and years after Speicher's incident over Iraq, JoAnne Speicher was supported by Speicher's friend, "Buddy" Harris. Eventually, the two became a couple and married. Harris took her two children as his own, after which the couple had two more children. Harris was a significant voice for action to settle the details of Speicher's death, and has been an ongoing voice for POWs and MIAs.

References

Bibliography

External links

POW Network – Bio on Scott Speicher, with information relating to his service.
Fallen Warrior Scott Speicher honored, Clay County Florida Parade of Flags.