Gulf War Pilot Family's Odyssey Is Over
For 18 years the family of Captain Michael "Scott" Speicher never gave up hope. He was shot down on the first night of the 1991 Gulf War, but his family never knew what happened to him.
Now they finally have some answers.
Pentagon pathologists confirmed yesterday that bone and dental fragments they found in the Iraqi desert, near where his F-18 had crashed, are those of Captain Speicher.
CBS News correspondent Kimberly Dozier reports the discovery of the remains was made after a tip from Iraqis.
Speicher family spokeswoman Cindy Laquidara said that there are mixed feelings over the confirmation of Captain Speicher's death.
"Of course, there's sadness at Scott's passing," Laquidara told CBS "Early Show" anchor Harry Smith. "That, of course, is normal and expected, and we've been preparing for either a joyful reunion or the sadness of his passing. There's pride in the country for doing what we always knew could be done, which is locating Captain Speicher. And then there's, frankly, a bit of anxiousness of closing this matter, how are we going to get all of these details wrapped up?"
Laquidara said the family has long fought a bureaucracy over the status of Captain Speicher, and seeking an answer to his disappearance, which she described an odyssey.
Referencing Speicher's friend who engaged in years-long conversations with the Pentagon over evidence and intelligence on Speicher's whereabouts, she said, "It was Buddy Harris taking all of his time and effort and getting to know this information, all the intelligence. It was retaining our own intelligence people when we needed to.
"I think at this point there's a certain level of exhaustion but a certain level also of accomplishment," she added. "They did succeed in setting up a new intelligence unit so that, when one of our men or women is snatched, there's now an intelligence unit that understands the community in which they're taken and knows how to begin getting them. So they've accomplished a lot in addition to bringing Scott home."
In a statement issued Sunday, Speicher's family said, "We find some solace in having transformed the search process, so that no serviceman or woman is ever, ever, left behind again."
"This Whole Thing Has Been So Surreal"
It's been almost two decades since the 33-year-old Speicher, then a lieutenant commander, disappeared over west-central Iraq on Jan. 17, 1991, just two hours into the Gulf War.,
Speicher was declared "killed in action" by the Pentagon hours later. Defense Secretary Dick Cheney went on television and announced the U.S. had suffered its first casualty of the war.
But without remains, doubts grew. A decade after he disappeared, officials changed his status to "missing in action," citing an absence of evidence that Speicher had died.
Speicher later reached the rank of captain because he kept receiving promotions while his status was unknown.
In the captain's hometown of Jacksonville, Fla., a campaign was kept up to continue searching.
A large banner flying outside a firefighters' credit union has a photo of him with the words "Free Scott Speicher." At his church, a memorial was put up in his honor. The tennis complex at his alma mater, Florida State University, was named for him. Support groups who believed the pilot had been captured and held captive, pressed on.
In October 2002, the Navy switched his status to "missing/captured," although it has never said what evidence it had that he ever was in captivity. More reviews followed, without definitive answers.
After the fall of Baghdad in 2003, troops scoured Iraqi prisons looking for evidence. All they found were the initials "MSS" carved on a wall, leaving investigators to wonder if Michael "Scott" Speicher had been held here.
An Iraqi who remembered a plane going down, and Bedouins burying a body, led investigators to a burial site near the site. The Iraqi said the pilot died in the crash.
The military recovered bones and multiple skeletal fragments and Speicher was positively identified by matching a jawbone and dental records, said Rear Adm. Frank Thorp. He said the Iraqis told investigators that the Bedouins had buried Speicher. It was unclear whether the military had information on how soon Speicher died after the crash.
While dental records have confirmed the remains to be those of Speicher, Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Rockville, Md., is running DNA tests on the remains recovered and comparing them with DNA reference samples previously provided by family members.
Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, conveyed condolences to Speicher's family in a statement from Baghdad. "Although we cannot fully understand the sense of loss, or the pain his family has shouldered throughout the years of waiting, we hope they can find solace in his dignified and honorable return home," he said.
"This whole thing has been so surreal for all of the people who have known Scott," said Nels Jensen, 52, a high school classmate who helped form the group "Friends Working to Free Scott Speicher," and who now lives in Arkansas.
Jensen said the group was frustrated the military didn't initially send a search-and-rescue team after the crash, and then grew more perplexed as reports of his possible capture emerged.
"Never again will our military likely not send out a search-and-rescue party for a downed serviceman," Jensen said.
President Barack Obama thanked the Marines who recovered Speicher's remains. "As with all our service men and women considered Missing in Action, we remain steadfast in our determination to bring our American heroes home," he said.