I just saw this on the news. I hope we soon see Scott Speicher alive.
Danny "Greasy" Belcher
Infantry Sgt. Vietnam 68-69
"D" Troop 7th Sqdn 1st Air Cav.
23 April, 2003
U.S. Finds Initials of Missing Navy Pilot
By JOHN J. LUMPKIN
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - 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.
An attorney for the Speicher family called the news "heartening''
and said the family remains hopeful. "There's a lot of information
indicating that Scott is alive and in captivity,'' Cindy Laquidara told
MSNBC in a telephone interview.
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.
