Navy Sets Hearing For Status Of Pilot Missing Since 1991

Associated Press - United States
Sunday, January 4, 2009 3:22 AM

By Ben Evans
ASSOCIATED PRESS

The family of Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, shot down in Iraq, isn't convinced he was killed in action.

WASHINGTON -- The family of a Navy pilot missing since his plane was shot down during the first Gulf War isn't ready to give up hope that he's alive and say they will oppose any decision to declare him killed in action.

The Navy has scheduled a review board hearing for Monday on the status of Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, who has been missing since January 1991, when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Persian Gulf War.

The hearing comes several months after the Navy received a fresh intelligence report on Speicher from Iraq.

Speicher's family, which has seen the latest information, thinks Navy Secretary Donald Winter is moving toward changing Speicher's status from missing/captured to killed, according to family spokeswoman and attorney Cindy Laquidara.

"This really is a precedent for every other captive serviceman or woman and it needs to be done right," Laquidara said. "We've looked at the information that's going to be presented to the board and we feel pretty confident that it's not time under the standards that they've set to change the status. There are things that need to be done before one can be certain."

Speicher, who had lived near Jacksonville, Fla., was the first American lost in the war.

He was publicly declared killed in action hours after his plane went down. Ten years later, the Navy changed his status to missing in action, citing an absence of evidence that he had died.

In October 2002, the Navy switched his status to "missing/captured," although it has never said what evidence it had that he might have been in captivity.