Pentagon Urged To Keep Up Probe Of Pilot Missing From 1991 Gulf War

Washington Post - United States

A Navy review board said the Pentagon should continue investigating what happened to Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, a fighter pilot who was the first American missing in action during the Persian Gulf War.

Speicher, from outside Jacksonville, Fla., has been missing since 1991, when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Gulf War.

The board's recommendation Thursday that it is not yet time to close the case now goes to the Navy secretary, who has the final decision.

"They feel that the body of evidence suggests as much that he's alive" as that he was killed, said Buddy Harris, a former Navy commander and close friend of Speicher's who has since married Speicher's ex-wife.