[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 29 (Thursday, March 14, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E357]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  ON THE FATE OF LCDR MICHAEL ``SCOTT'' SPEICHER, USN, AND AMERICA'S 
                           MISSING IN ACTION

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. J. RANDY FORBES

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 14, 2002

  Mr. FORBES. Mr. Speaker, I am very distraught today over our failure 
to resolve the disappearance of LCDR Michael Scott Speicher. Commander 
Speicher was the first American lost in the 1991 gulf war. His F/A-18 
Hornet was shot down west of Baghdad in the early morning hours of 
January 17. After Kuwait was liberated and the tenuous cease-fire 
agreement reached, the Iraqi Government returned remains of a person 
that was supposed to be Commander Speicher. DNA and blood type testing 
would reveal that it was not. Years later, after a debate over whether 
Commander Speicher was killed in action or simply missing, intelligence 
sources now believe that Commander Speicher may be alive and a prisoner 
of Iraq.
  America has a moral obligation to every Soldier, Sailor, Airman, 
Marine, and Coast Guardsmen that it sends into harm's way to accurately 
determine their fate and expend all efforts to return their remains to 
their families. Scott Speicher's family doesn't have closure because no 
search and rescue mission was ever launched. When a covert mission was 
proposed to go into Iraq in 1994 to investigate the crash site, a 
senior Pentagon official said, ``I do not want to have to write letters 
home to the parents to tell them that their son or daughter died 
looking for old bones.'' Who will write the letter to Scott Speicher's 
family explaining why he may still be alive?
  We cannot trust the Iraqis to help us. The Iraqi government has 
already failed to deliver CDR Speicher or his remains at the end of the 
gulf war; and they delayed an investigation into the crash site until 
they had time to pick it over. Scott Speicher is the only American 
unaccounted for from the gulf war, but there are many unaccounted 
personnel missing from other conflicts. We need to renew our efforts to 
locate those who gave all in service of their country, and return them 
to their families.

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