Speicher's DNA matches remains
By Andrew Tilghman - Staff writer
A DNA test has confirmed that the remains found in the Iraqi desert in July were that of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, the F/A-18 Hornet pilot who was shot down during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, Defense Department officials said Friday.
The remains were discovered in the desert about 60 miles west of Ramadi and about 2 kilometers, or about 1.2 miles, from the crash site, defense officials said. Speicher ejected from the plane before it crashed, investigators said.
Speicher, the only American who remained missing in action from the 1991 Persian Gulf War, was 33 years old when he was shot down Jan. 17, 1991, by an Iraqi fighter pilot while flying a combat mission over Anbar province.
Marines deployed in Iraq found the burial site after they were contacted by an Iraqi Bedouin who was 11 years old at the time of the crash. The Iraqi man had no first-hand knowledge of the crash and burial, but knew other Bedouins who did, defense officials said.
Speicher's friends and family are hoping further analysis will help determine the cause of death and shed light on what happened in between the pilot's ejection and death.
A recovery team of about 150 people, mostly Marines, searched the area for eight days in late July, finding several bones and bone fragments, defense officials said.
The remains were later shipped to Dover, Del., and examined by members of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology.
The Pentagon initially declared Speicher killed. But uncertainty, conflicting reports and the lack of remains fueled speculation that he may have survived the crash and been held captive.
Ten years after the Persian Gulf War, the Navy changed Speicher's status to missing in action, citing an absence of evidence that he had died.
In October 2002, the Navy switched his status to "missing/captured," although it has never said what evidence it had that he was ever in captivity.
Speicher, a lieutenant commander at the time of the 1991 crash, has since been promoted to captain.
Another review was done in 2005 with information gleaned after Baghdad fell in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, which allowed U.S. officials to search inside Iraq.