News-Info-Alerts

Re: Speicher - Family Holds on to Hope

From: POW-MIA InterNetwork

Date: March 23, 2003

"Missing in action
Woman hopes for cousin's return
Family thinks pilot once reported dead could now be found.
 
By Will Higgins
will.higgins@indystar.com
March 23, 2003
 
Julie Speicher of Carmel watches the war news from a unique perspective: She doesn't have a soldier over in Iraq -- she has a prisoner of war there.
That's what she thinks, anyway.
Speicher's cousin, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy pilot, reportedly was shot down on the opening night of the first Iraq war in 1991.
Two pilots saw an explosion, and it was assumed Speicher's plane was demolished by enemy fire. He was listed as the first American killed in that war and given a tomb in Arlington National Cemetery.
Julie Speicher and the rest of the family grieved and moved on.
But several years later there were new developments. Speicher's plane was found in the Iraqi desert. It was not destroyed, as had been thought. And since the cockpit canopy was located a distance away, the new speculation was that Speicher had ejected. The CBS news show "60 Minutes" later interviewed an Iraqi defector who said Speicher was taken to Baghdad. The man picked out Speicher from among a group of photos.
Last October, the U.S. Navy officially changed Scott Speicher's status from dead to missing or captured.
"I think they grabbed him when he came down," says Julie Speicher. "I really think he's alive."
She hopes to see her cousin again but worries about his well-being after more than a decade in Iraqi captivity.
She hadn't seen him in some time, but the two had been close when they were young. Her family lived in Des Moines, Iowa; his family lived in Kansas City, Mo.
The families visited often. "We grew up playing together," says Julie Speicher. "Kick the can, hide-and-go-seek . . ."
She thinks her cousin is now hidden away in Baghdad.
If her cousin survives the bombing, and if he is later found by friendly troops, it would be a great day for the Speichers.
And an awkward day: Scott Speicher, who was 33 when he went missing, left behind a wife, Joanne, and two young children. During the time he was declared dead, Speicher's wife married his best friend.

Call Star reporter Will Higgins at 1-317-444-6043.
USA Today"