Michael Scott Speicher is a United States Navy pilot who went missing in action after being shot down over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War. He is the first American casualty of the Persian Gulf war.
Early Life[]
Michael Speicher, who went by his middle name Scott, was born on July 12, 1957 in Kansas City, Missouri. Growing up, he and his sister attended Lakewood Elementary School, Eastgate Middle School, Winnetonka High School. A five years of age, he had his first airplane flight. When he was fifteen, his family moved to Jacksonville, Florida where he attended Nathan Bedford Forrest High School (now known as Westside High School since 2014). While a teenager, he was a cadet for the Civil Air Patrol. After graduation, he attended Florida State University where he graduated with a bachelor's degree in accounting and business management in 1980. While at university, he met and eventually married a woman named Joanne, and they had two children Meghan and Michael Jr.
Military service[]
After graduating from FSU, Speicher joined the United States Navy and attended Aviation Officer Candidate School at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Florida. He was designated a Naval Aviator and spent 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 Hornet.
By the time of the Persian Gulf War, Speicher was a lieutenant commander at the Naval Air Station Cecil Field near Jacksonville, Florida. He was assigned to Strike Fighter Squadron Eighty One (VFA-81), the squadron being nicknamed the "Sunliners," deploying with Carrier Air Wing 17 (CVW-17) aboard the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga. To his fellow soldiers, his nickname was "Spike".
On August 2, 1990, the Iraqi Ground Forces under Saddam Hussein invaded and annexed the country of Kuwait. This invasion led to the beginning of the Persian Gulf War. A United Nations-backed coalition of thirty-five countries, led by the United States, instigated Operation Desert Shield between August 2, 1990 and January 17, 1991, which saw the build-up of soldiers and defense of Saudi Arabia. Operation Desert Storm began on January 17, 1991, two days after a deadline for the Iraqi forces to leave Kuwait had passed.
On the first night of Desert Storm, Speicher was flying an F/A-18 Hornet fighter, BuNo 163484, when he was shot down by Iraqi aircraft a hundred miles west of Baghdad, Iraq. His plane crashed in Tulul ad Dulaym, Iraq, which is described as an "unihabitable wasteland". In a 1997 document, the US Navy maintained he was shot down by a surface-to-air missile. However, an unclassified 2001 Central Intelligence Agency report suggested he was shot down by a MiG-25, flown by Lieutenant Zuhair Dawood, 84th squadron of the Iraqi Air Force. peicher 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. At least one pilot on the same mission agreed with CIA report by saying, "I'm telling you right now, don't believe what you're being told. It was that MiG that shot Spike down."
Investigation[]
The day after being shot down, Speicher was listed as Missing in Action. He was not among the twenty-one Prisoners of War or twenty-three bodies of soldiers recovered at the end of the war. Two other pilots were declared Killed in Action, body not recovered. Speicher was changed to this status on May 22, 1991. Navy Commander Buddy Harris, a friend and fellow naval aviator of Speicher's, became a strong advocate for searching for Speicher, often meeting with U.S. officials. He also married Joanne and they together had two additional kids.
In December 1993, a Qatari military official discovered the wreckage of Speicher's plane in the desert. As the canopy was found a distance from the rest of the aircraft, it was implied Speicher tried to eject. Further evidence to suggest Speicher was alive was a US satellite photographed apparent human-made symbols on the desert floor near the wreck's location, which might have possibly been an E&E (Escape and Evade) sign. a covert American inspection operation was considered, but then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General John Shalikashvili rejected it because he thought it was "too risky". Through the International Committee of the Red Cross, investigators from the Navy and Army's Central Identification Laboratory excavated the site in December 1995. Bendouin nomads gave investigators what appeared to be Speicher's flight uniform, with the name supposedly cut off, but investigators concluded it had been planted there. In September of 1996, then-Secretary of Navy, John Dalton, reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death, and Speicher was given a cenotaph in Section H at the Arlington National Cemetery.
In January 2001, then-Secretary of the Navy, Robert B. Pirie Jr., changed Speicher's status to "Missing in Action," the first time the Defense Department made such a change. In accordance to the reclassification, Speicher was promoted to Commander. In July 2002, he was promoted to Captain. At this time, it was rumored in Iraq that Speicher was captive, had facial scars, and walked with a limp. His story was run by National Review Online and the Washington Times ran five successive front-page articles starting in March 2002. He was mentioned once more when then-President George W. Bush in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly as part of his case for war against Iraq. On October 10, 2002, one day after the United States Congress authorized the use of military force in Iraq, Speicher's status was once again changed to "Missing/Captured". Then-US Secretary of the Navy Gordon R. England said, "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Commander Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Commander Speicher.".
In April 2003, Speicher's possible initials, "MSS," were discovered in a cell at Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad. A ninety-page Iraqi document, dated January 2003, also had his name in it, specifically under the list of prisoner names held in Iraq.This fueled speculation that he was indeed captured by Iraq and still alive. However, investigators stated these were not significant clues as a similar carving, "MJN," was found directly above the "MSS" carving, DNA tests on hair found at in the cell's drain did not match his DNA, and 90-page document offered no evidence of whether Speicher was alive and might have been written either to provide an accounting of former Iraqi POWs or to confuse the U.S. military. As the Anbar province was increasingly taken over by US forces, it became apparent Speicher was never captured. His status was changed back to "Missing in Action" by then-Secretary of the Navy on Donald C. Winter on March 10, 2009.
Recovery and Legacy[]
On August 2, 2009, an Iraqi men led US Marines from the Marine Wing Support Squadron 271 and US Navy Seals from SEAL Team 7 to a grave where Scott Speicher's remains were found. They were confirmed to be his through dental records. Local civilians said Speicher was killed instantly and that Bendouin nomads in the area at the time buried him. Senator Bill Wilson of Florida, who took a strong interest in the case, further elaborated, "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." On August 13, 2009, the remains of Speicher arrived at the Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Florida at 3:00 PM. Thousands of friends and family gathered for his burial. He 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 September 7, 2009.
Before his remains were found, Florida State University named its tennis center the Scott Speicher Tennis Complex. Additionally, an Iraqi airbase known as the Tikrit Air Academy was named after him as Camp Speicher. A US 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 USS Saratoga.
On Memorial Day 2010, an American flag and a wooden cross bearing his name was commissioned, adding him to the Clay County Florida Parade of Flags.
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 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.
Scott Speicher is buried at the Jacksonville Memory Gardens in Orange Park, Florida.
Gallery[]
Sources[]
- Scott Speicher on Wikipedia
- New York Daily News
- {{Find a grave|40494103|Scott Speicher