With this change in status we may have a favorable vote to pass (S-1339)
"The Persian Gulf War POW/MIA Accountability Act" which
is called the "Speicher Bill". Call Monday and Tuesday to
your Congressman's office in Washington, DC at toll free 877-762-8762
or if busy call 202-224-3121. Ask for Your Congressman's office. When
you get the office ask to speak to the person that handles veteran issues
for the Congressman and ask them or leave a message to tell the Congressman
to vote YES to pass S-1339 which is sponsored by Ben Nighthorse Campbell.
Call the number again until you have left a message for All of the Congressmen
from your state. We may have a vote on the Speicher Bill this Tuesday.
This is so little to do to help save Scott Speicher's life.
Danny "Greasy" Belcher
Infantry Sgt. Vietnam 68-69
"D" Troop 7th Sqdn 1st Air Cav.
11 October, 2002
Navy Changes Gulf War Pilot Status
By MATT KELLEY
.c The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) - The U.S. Navy has changed the status of Gulf War
pilot Scott Speicher from missing in action to missing-captured, Sen.
Pat Roberts said Friday.
A defense official confirmed that Navy Secretary Gordon England had
approved the change in status, which had been in the works for months.
Speicher, a Navy F-18 pilot who was shot down over Iraq on the opening
night of the Gulf War in January 1991, initially was listed as killed
in action, with no body recovered. But in January 2001, the Navy changed
his status to
missing in action, given an absence of evidence that he died in the
crash.
Iraq says Speicher was killed in the crash.
Roberts, R-Kan., and other members of Congress have been pressing the
Pentagon this year to change Speicher's status. Some in the Navy had
worried that declaring Speicher captured would be seen as a political
move as part
of President Bush's drive to win support for possible military action
against Saddam Hussein.
The change in status "sends a symbolic message to the Iraqis,
to other adversaries and most important to the men and women of the
armed forces that we will accept nothing less than full disclosure of
circumstances surrounding the missing and captured,'' Roberts said.
Though not mentioning Speicher by name, Bush has referred in several
recent speeches to a U.S. pilot still missing in Iraq.
There is no known physical evidence that Speicher was captured, but
U.S. intelligence agencies believe it is a possibility. It is widely
believed inside the Navy that Iraq knows more about Speicher's fate
than it has acknowledged.
Last year, U.S. intelligence agencies said in a report to the Senate
Intelligence Committee that Speicher probably ejected from his plane
and survived the shootdown. "We assess Lt. Cmdr. Speicher was either
captured
alive or his remains were recovered and brought to Baghdad,'' the report
said. In either case, the Iraqi government has concealed information
about his fate, it said.
In July, the State Department sent a diplomatic note through the International
Committee of the Red Cross asking whether the Iraqi government can offer
new details about Speicher.
In a July 8 letter to Secretary of State Colin Powell, Defense Secretary
Donald H. Rumsfeld said he agreed with Powell's suggestion that a note
be delivered "to confirm Iraq's intention to provide new information.''
In March, Iraq offered to meet with U.S. officials in Baghdad to discuss
the case.
A U.S. excavation team visited the crash site in 1995, finding aircraft
debris but no human remains. U.S. officials have said the site was tampered
with because reconnaissance photos showed part of the plane removed,
then
returned, before the excavation team arrived.
