Gulf War pilot may be alive

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — U.S. intelligence agencies say an American pilot shot down over Iraq during the Gulf War was either captured alive or his remains were recovered by the Iraqis.

Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher of Jacksonville, Fla., was lost when his Navy F-18 Hornet was shot down on Jan. 16, 1991, in a dogfight with an Iraqi fighter jet during the first few hours of the war. He was the first American lost in the war.

"We assess that Iraq can account for Lt. Cmdr. Speicher but that Baghdad is concealing information about his fate," said an unclassified CIA summary of a report by the intelligence community. "Lt. Cmdr. Speicher probably survived the loss of his aircraft, and if he survived, he almost certainly was captured by the Iraqis."

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told reporters Friday, "We have a very real interest in his circumstance, if he’s alive — indeed, in knowing about his circumstance even if he’s not alive. And one would hope and pray that he is alive. We do not know."

Speicher was the first American lost in the war and the only one still unaccounted for. In May 1991, the military declared him killed in action, and the Navy confirmed that in 1996. Without explanation, the Navy changed Speicher’s status to missing in action on Jan. 11, 2001.

Analysis of the wreckage by Navy experts concluded that "Speicher initiated the ejection sequence, jettisoned the canopy, and likely ejected from the stricken aircraft prior to the crash," the study found.

"We do not know if Lt. Cmdr. Speicher survived the ejection sequence or subsequent landing, but the lack of crash-site evidence of Lt. Cmdr. Speicher’s death, U.S. Navy statistical data associated with F/A-18 incidents, and the condition of the returned flight suit suggest that he probably survived the crash," the report says.

On Jan. 11, 2001, the day Speicher was declared missing in action, U.S. officials said more than one informant had told U.S. intelligence agencies that an American thought to be Speicher was being held prisoner in Iraq after the war ended in March 1991. The sightings were in 1991 and 1992, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity.