AII POW-MIA InterNetwork

"Class of 1975 keeps Navy pilot's story alive

By Paul Pinkham
Times-Union staff writer
Across the First Coast, people who knew Navy pilot Scott Speicher, or just knew of him, are organizing to pressure government leaders for information on his disappearance over Iraq 11 years ago.

There's a group who worshiped with Speicher at Lake Shore United Methodist Church on the Westside.

There's the ladies auxiliary from the Veterans of Foreign Wars post in Green Cove Springs, which adopted Speicher as their post's prisoner of war.

And there are Speicher's classmates from the Forrest High School class of 1975, who are leading the charge to keep their friend's story alive. Most last saw him at a class reunion three days before he and his squadron left Cecil Field Naval Air Station for the Middle East.

Members of the 1975 graduating class of Forrest High School will meet at 7 p.m. tomorrow at the Jacksonville school, 5530 Firestone Road, to continue organizing an effort to pressure government leaders for answers on the status of downed Navy pilot Scott Speicher. For more information, call (904) 266-3309.
Those three groups and others will meet at Forrest in Jacksonville tomorrow night to continue organizing a media campaign with one goal in mind:

"It's up to the people who know and love him to demand answers," classmate Leslea Amidon said. "We have to do something."

Speicher was shot down over the Iraqi desert on the opening night of the Persian Gulf War and was quickly listed as killed in action. But subsequent intelligence reports and analysis of the wreckage led the Pentagon to change his status to missing in action last year. U.S. Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., is pressuring Pentagon officials to revise his status again to POW.

"This is an American and this is a friend of ours. ... It's eating at all of us," said Jim Stafford, who sat next to Speicher in homeroom for four years at Forrest. He said the fact that classmates are organizing 27 years after graduation is a testament to the kind of person Speicher was.

Speicher's name came up at a recent meeting of the Forrest class of '75 reunion committee, said Suzanne Hayes, another Speicher classmate. The group agreed to use the remaining funds in their bank account to create an organization dedicated to getting answers and had its first organizational meeting last week.

"They all felt pretty strongly about it," Hayes said. "A lot of people showed up who knew Scott."

Since then, the group has printed "Free Scott Speicher" bumper stickers and mailed them to the roughly 500 members of his graduation class. There are plans for an Internet site, a toll-free phone number, POW bracelets, T-shirts and a full-scale public relations blitz on his behalf.

Justice Coalition founder Ted Hires put the group in touch with public relations specialist Theresa Eichner, who is providing her services for free.

"They're all motivated. They're all there to find out what happened," Eichner said of the Forrest group.

And most hold out hope he's alive.

"Any funds that roll over ... are going to be used to throw the biggest coming-home party the city of Jacksonville has ever seen," Hayes said. "On the flip side, and we're not focusing on this, if he is not alive, the funds will be used to establish a memorial in Scott's name."

Speicher's family of Orange Park isn't part of the effort. They have chosen to remain as private as possible, said their attorney, Cindy Laquidara.

"We do want to thank everybody for their prayers and for keeping Scott in their thoughts," she said. "We are working solely with our government sources at the present time because we believe that's what's ultimately in Scott's best interest."

Staff writer Paul Pinkham can be reached at (904) 359-4107 or ppinkham@jacksonville.com."