[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 121 (Wednesday, August 5, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S8786]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   SEARCH FOR CAPTAIN SCOTT SPEICHER

  Mr. NELSON of Florida. Mr. President, I want to call to the attention 
of the Senate, and thank the Pentagon for its dogged pursuit in finding 
the evidence of CPT Scott Speicher, U.S. Navy, the pilot of the F-18 
Hornet who was shot down on the first night of the gulf war back in 
1991.
  This saga has evolved over the last 18 years. The Pentagon became lax 
in the 1990s and did not pursue the finding of evidence, and there were 
all kinds of reports that Captain Speicher may have been alive and held 
in a prison. You can imagine the trauma, the emotional ups and downs, 
that occurred to the family, which included the children who were quite 
young at the time and are now at the age that they are in college. 
Fortunately, the Pentagon, about 8 or 9 years ago, got serious about 
the search. When we invaded Iraq in 2003, they even created a search 
team. Again, there were all of these false leads that there had been 
the sighting of a pilot. An Iraqi refugee said he saw an American pilot 
in a prison. It went on and on.
  Of course, the hopes of the family were that CPT Scott Speicher was 
going to be found alive.
  Our Pentagon even went so far--and I commend them--that one of the 
first sets of questions on the debriefing of any Iraqi detainee--and 
especially the high-value detainees--the question would be asked, ``Do 
you know about an American pilot?'' All of these leads turned out to be 
false or they led to nothing. So it was that we expected that what 
would happen to find the final evidence would be a Bedouin tribe that 
would have been in the area of the Iraqi desert at the time Captain 
Speicher punched out, or ejected, from his jet that was hit.

  The irony was that Scott was not even supposed to fly that first 
attack wave, but another member of the squadron got sick and he filled 
in. Either he was hit with a ground-to-air missile or somehow in the 
aerial combat of the darkness of that night, and he ejected from his 
airplane. The rest has been a mystery until a Bedouin, thought to have 
been a younger child at the time, in 1991, remembered a pilot being 
buried. He could not identify the location, but knew of another Bedouin 
who was an adult at the time, and that Bedouin ultimately led the 
marines to the site and an extensive investigation and excavation that 
occurred on the Iraqi desert floor.
  So all who have participated--the Army Reserve, Major Eames, who led 
the Scott Speicher search party, and who extended his duty voluntarily 
for an additional 6 weeks way back in 2003, because he was absolutely 
intent that he was going to find this downed pilot. For all of those, 
including the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the CNO, who have now 
brought this to closure, because last weekend they found the remains of 
Captain Speicher, with a positive identification through one of his 
jawbones with his military dental records, to be confirmed even further 
by DNA evidence. We know now that Captain Speicher can be brought home 
and his family can have final closure.
  I will conclude by saying that a mistake was made that we never want 
to repeat. Because of him being mistakenly declared dead at a press 
conference the next morning after that first night attack in the first 
gulf war--he was mistakenly declared dead by the Secretary of Defense--
we did not send a search and rescue mission. Every military pilot has 
to have the security of knowing that if he has to eject, a search and 
rescue mission is coming after him. That is the mistake we will not 
make again.
  For the family, and on behalf of them, I want to say to the Pentagon 
and to the other Senators who have participated in this 18-year quest 
on behalf of Scott's family in Florida, thank you from the bottom of 
their hearts.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. The Senator from Illinois is 
recognized.

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