Free Scott Speicher
By Stephanie Ritenbaugh Staff writer
The quest to remind people of a Navy pilot shot down in Iraq 13 years ago still is under way in the Valley.
Leah Voyten, a member of the Free Scott Speicher organization, is flying a flag outside of her workplace, R.E. Crawford Construction along Pittsburgh Street in Springdale, to help raise awareness of the pilot's prisoner-of-war status.
Capt. Scott Speicher was shot down during the first Gulf War on Jan. 17, 1991. Initially, the Pentagon declared him killed in action.
In 2001, his status was changed to POW after it was reported that an American was being held in Saddam Hussein's prison system.
In April, American investigators in Iraq found Speicher's initials etched into a prison wall in Baghdad.
It is unknown who scrawled the letters into a wall in the Hakmiyah prison, according to U.S. officials, or whether the letters had anything to do with the missing pilot.
He is the only military pilot still unaccounted for from that war.
"It's a POW-MIA flag," Voyten said. "His name is on the flag on a small area and the date he was downed."
According to the Web site www.freescottspeicher.com, there are 191 registered members throughout the United States.
The flag has been passed from member to member around the country, Voyten said.
"Before this, the flag was in Valley View, Pa.," Voyten said. Voyten will fly the flag until Friday. Then it will be sent to another member.
According to their Web site, the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command (JPAC) is making active ongoing efforts to account for Speicher.
JPAC specialists attempted two recovery operations for Speicher. They were completed in December 1995 and August 2003.
No remains were recovered, according to JPAC spokeswoman Ginger Couden.
The organization's specialists have searched much of the world and scaled the mountains of Tibet for lost service members.
Using quarter-inch wire mesh, JPAC's forensic anthropologists comb through ounces of dirt looking for personal effects or remains, then analyze samples at their lab in Honolulu, Couden said.
JPAC was the merging of the 30-year-old U.S. Army Central Identification Laboratory and the 11-year-old Joint Task Force -- Full Accounting in October 2003.
Its mission is to account for the more than 78,000 service members missing from World War II, more than 8,100 missing from the Korean War, more than 1,800 from the Vietnam War, and 126 from the Cold War years, in addition to Speicher, Couden said.
The Free Scott Speicher organization is trying to change that last statistic.
"The group is trying to get awareness for his situation, and this is one of the ways we do it, by circulating the flag," Voyten said. "I'm going to leave it up (at night). This way, more people who come by can see it."
Voyten said she flew the flag at her father's house in Parks before asking to fly it at work.
"A lot of them weren't aware of (Speicher's) situation, but they were receptive," Voyten said. "(Owner) Robert Crawford was very supportive."
Co-worker Andrea Kymer said that the flag has made her aware of the situation.
"And maybe I feel a little more for it because my husband was in Vietnam," Kymer said.
Voyten said she got involved with the organization at the start of the latest Iraq war in March 2003 when his story was reported.
"I was ashamed I didn't know there was a POW from Desert Storm, so I got online to find out more about it," Voyten said. "I contacted some people and met some of the other members in Washington, D.C., for a candlelight vigil."
The Web site, started by Speicher's classmates, has a forum where members discuss other ways to keep Speicher's name in the open.
"I know one of the things they're trying to do is fly the flag at the Super Bowl," Voyten said. "They had another idea of a cookbook, and that's on the burner now. People could donate recipes. We would try to market that not for profit, but for awareness."
The Associated Press and staff writer Jonathan Szish contributed to this report.
Stephanie Ritenbaugh can be reached at sritenbaugh@tribweb.com
To learn more about Scott Speicher, visit www.freescottspeicher.com
To learn more about JPAC, visit www.cilhi.army.mil
© 2004 by The Tribune-Review Publishing Co.