Michael Scott Speicher: Dead or Alive?

Reprinted by AII POW-MIA with permission from the Virginian-Pilot ©2002

Military

Scott Speicher: Dead or Alive?
The Virginian-Pilot
© January 7, 2002

Scott Speicher U.S. Navy photo.

A special report

Part 1: Dead or Alive?
On the first night of the Gulf War, an American pilot disappeared. What happened to Scott Speicher is a mystery that deepens by the year.

Part 2: Presumed Dead
His fellow pilots didn't want to believe that Scott Speicher had been killed over Iraq, but the American government made a quick judgment that sealed his fate.

Part 3: A Test of Honor
Almost three years after a U.S. pilot was lost in the Gulf War, a stunning find in the Iraqi desert set off a debate over risk-taking vs. military duty.

Part 4: Returning to Iraq
In late 1995, Americans got their first look at the wreckage of Scott Speicher's Hornet and a chance to see what he might have seen if he landed safely in the desert.

Part 5: Hope Reawakens
Again and again, the government declared Scott Speicher, a Gulf War pilot, dead. But by 1999, reports from Iraq made his family and others believe there was a chance he had survived.

Part 6: Missing in Action
In 2001, President Clinton made a decision that pushed Scott Speicher back into the headlines and sparked a renewed effort toward solving the 10-year-old mystery.