Navy panel: Continue search for pilot lost in Gulf War

WASHINGTON

A Navy review board wants the service to continue searching for Capt. Scott Speicher, the Virginia Beach-based pilot who has been missing since his F/A-18 Hornet went down in Iraq on the first night of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.

"There is every bit as much evidence that he is alive as that he is dead," said Buddy Harris, a Speicher friend and former Navy flier who attended the board's four-day meeting this week.

Lt. Sean Robertson, a Navy spokesman, declined Friday to comment on the board's work, confirming only that its recommendations are being shared with Speicher's family.

A final decision about Speicher's status rests with Navy Secretary Donald Winter or his successor; Winter is expected to leave office this month. The secretary ordered the review board last fall, reportedly after receiving a classified report on continuing efforts to locate Speicher.

Speicher was declared dead shortly after his plane went down and was recorded as the first American lost in the war. The Navy changed his status in 2001 to "missing/captured" based on evidence found after the war that he had ejected from his crippled plane before it crashed.

A survey team located the wreckage of the plane and a flight suit in the Iraqi desert in 1995. No remains were recovered and there have been repeated reports of Speicher sightings inside Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The Speicher family "is very certain he was alive, on the ground, with no major injuries" after ejecting from his plane, Harris said. "What happened after that is speculation."

Harris attended the review panel's hearing and has been receiving regular briefings on the search as a representative of the family. He and Speicher's wife, Joanne, married in 1993, when Speicher was still listed as killed in action.

"I will not stop until Scott's repatriated," Harris said Friday.

While the Navy's final decision on Speicher's status has financial implications for the family, Harris said he has deliberately kept himself unaware of the pay and benefit issues so he can focus on finding his friend.

Robertson, the Navy spokesman, declined to discuss specific payments to the family but confirmed that the military paid its standard death gratuity after Speicher was declared dead. Speicher also had life insurance under the Servicemembers Group Life Insurance plan.

After Speicher was re classified as missing, the Navy resumed payment of his salary and benefits, plus back pay, to his designated beneficiary, Robertson said. Since 2001, however, 20 percent of those payments have been deposited in an interest-bearing account and held for payment directly to Speicher, should he be recovered alive.

Harris acknowledged that with Speicher missing for so long, it's not surprising that many people believe he must be dead.

"Why can't we err on the side of life?" he asked. Americans owe it to all service members and their families to keep looking for those lost in combat until they or their remains are found, he said.

The Defense Department spends $105 million annually to search for and identify the remains of troops from all wars, said Larry Greer, a spokesman for the office that oversees the work.

About 88,000 re unaccounted for, Greer said. The intensity of efforts to find them is unrelated to whether they're classed as missing or killed, he said.

About 600 people work full time on search and identification, Greer said. With one or two exceptions, no one listed as missing for as long as Speicher has been located alive, he added.

Dale Eisman, (703) 913-9872, dale.eisman@pilotonline.com