U.S. team concludes Navy pilot died in Gulf war

Members of the U.S. team investigating the fate of Capt. Scott Speicher have concluded that the Navy fighter pilot is dead, according to sources close to the mission.

But his remains have not been found. A promising lead to finally resolving the matter vanished recently when buried remains thought to be Capt. Speicher’s turned out not to be of the downed pilot.

The sources said Army Maj. Gen. Keith Dayton, the former director of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG), has told officials in recent days that investigators now believe the pilot shot down in 1991 over Iraq is not alive.

The conclusion is based largely on the fact that all leads to Capt. Speicher’s whereabouts have turned up no evidence he is alive.

“What I have heard [Gen. Dayton] say is there is no evidence he was ever in captivity,” said a senior defense official.

ISG officials now believe Capt. Speicher either died in the crash or shortly thereafter in Iraq’s vast western desert, a second official said.

Capt. Speicher’s F-18 Hornet was shot down on the first night of Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. The canopy on his crashed jet was photographed some distance from the crash site west of Baghdad, giving rise to hope that he had ejected and was alive.

Later, an Iraqi defector claimed to have seen him alive, prompting the Navy to change his status from killed in action to missing-captured.

But the ISG’s investigation since the fall of Baghdad in April 2003 has failed to find any evidence he is alive. Two once-promising tips failed to resolve the matter.

In one case, Bedouin tribesmen said they believed Capt. Speicher was buried near the crash site.

“There are Iraqis who believe he died in the desert,” said the defense official.

The ISG went to the site and unearthed remains, heightening hopes that the Speicher mystery had finally been solved. The remains were sent to Dover Air Force Base, Del., home to a military mortuary. But a DNA examination determined the body was not Capt. Speicher’s, officials say.

In a second lead, a Bedouin claimed to have the pilot’s handgun and was willing to turn it in. But the Bedouin never appeared with the gun. Investigators are speculating that the tribesman may have been threatened by Iraqi insurgents or foreign fighters and thus disappeared.

Navy Secretary Gordon England changed Capt. Speicher’s status to missing-captured, and would be the official who would decide whether to change it back to killed in action.

The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is expected to deliver a report on the pilot’s status to Mr. England in the coming months, after the ISG files its assessment.

Story Continues →