a hero is home

not as he should be though, but home none the less. may his family and friends find peace with this discovery


U.S. Pilot’s Remains Found in Iraq After 18 Years
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — Navy officials announced early Sunday that Marines in the western Iraqi province of Anbar had found remains that have been positively identified as those of an American fighter pilot shot down in the opening hours of the first Persian Gulf war in 1991.

The Navy pilot, Capt. Michael Scott Speicher, was the only American missing in action from that war. Efforts to determine what happened to him after his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down by an Iraqi warplane on Jan. 17, 1991, had continued despite false rumors and scant information.

Conflicting reports from Iraq had, over the years, fueled speculation that the pilot, promoted to captain from lieutenant commander in the years he was missing, might have been taken into captivity either after parachuting from his jet or after a crash landing...........

picture:

U.S. Navy, via Associated Press

Captain Michael Scott Speicher