The Navy yesterday announced that it has changed the status of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, a Navy pilot lost in the 1991 Gulf War, from “missing/captured” to “missing-in-action.” Navy Secretary Donald Winter made the decision after a review of available information, including the recommendation of a recent status review board. Winter convened the board after the intelligence community concluded last October that Speicher is deceased, though his remains are unlocated. Speicher’s F/A-18 was brought down by “hostile action” on Jan. 17, 1991, according to the Navy announcement. (Initial reports cited an Iraqi surface-to-air missile, but later accounts, including one unclassified intelligence report, credited an Iraqi MiG firing an air-to-air missile.) He was initially declared “killed-in-action/body-not-recovered,” but this status was changed to MIA in 2001 and then to missing/captured in 2002 based on sighting reports in Iraq that have since been discredited, the Navy said.
More A-10s Deploy to Middle East, This Time from Idaho
March 31, 2025
Multiple A-10 attack aircraft from the Idaho Air National Guard deployed to the Middle East over the weekend. More than 300 Airmen from the 124th Fighter Wing, along with the attack aircraft, were sent to southwest Asia within U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility on March 29.