Scott memory
Michael Scott Speicher (* 12. June 1957 in Kansas City (Missouri) ; † 17th January 1991 in al-Anbar ) was a fighter pilot of the US Navy , the F / A-18 - combat aircraft during the first night of Operation Desert Storm of an Iraqi MiG-25 was shot down with an air-to-air missile . The then 33-year-old is believed to be the first to be killed by the US armed forces in Operation Desert Storm.
From that point on, storage was seen as a missing in action . After the war, his unexplained fate opened up another area of tension between Iraq and the United States . The United States Department of Defense originally pronounced Speicher dead, and then went missing in 2001. One day after Congress authorized then- President George W. Bush to attack Iraq on October 11, 2002 , he was classified as missing in captivity and therefore probably alive. Bush had already mentioned Speicher in his speech to the General Assembly of the United Nations on September 12, 2002 in the looming Iraq crisis .
The last indication that Speicher may still be alive came from American intelligence services in January 2003. There had been repeated indications that he was alive in Iraqi captivity. Speicher's whereabouts were the subject of the first interrogation Saddam Hussein was subjected to after his arrest in 2003.
The pilot's remains could only be recovered from a desert grave in Al-Anbar province in July 2009, following indications from locals . According to the Ministry of Defense, Speicher had been found dead and buried by Bedouins at the crash site . An analysis of bone fragments and tooth impressions revealed that it was Michael Speicher.
In memory of Speicher, the United States Army named one of its bases in Iraq after Speicher ( Camp Speicher ), his former university, Florida State University , a tennis court.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Report suggests missing pilot alive in Iraq. - CNN report of January 10, 2003. Date found: May 2, 2007
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Speicher, Scott |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Speicher, Michael Scott |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American military, fighter pilot in the United States Navy |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 12, 1957 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Kansas City (Missouri) |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 17, 1991 |
| Place of death | al-Anbar |