CAPT Scott Speicher - KIA

[scoolbubba]

There were a bunch of us out there. I should have been studying for a sim that I had a brief for at 1700, but I figured what the hell and paid my respects. It was pretty awesome seeing people all the way from Yorktown to the Chapel.

 

[webmaster]

Scoolbubba, you made the right call. Studying can wait, being part of a fallen comrade ceremony and honoring their ultimate sacrifice is not something as a service member you should avoid.

 

[NavAir42]

I was more than happy to stand out there, along with the rest of our wardroom to pay our respect. It was a very powerful sight to see the entire route lined.

 

[Ralph]

After 19 years, CAPT Speicher returned to the US today. I was one of the hundreds of people who were lining the streets for the short drive over to the chapel. He is lying in state there with an honor guard. Tomorrow morning he will go on a final tour of Jacksonville. If you are in the Jacksonville area, I encourage you to go to the chapel. It is open all night.

http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2009-08-13/story/speichers_body_returns_to_jacksonville

Sorry if this is a repost. Awesome that the charter pilot saluted.

 

[HeyJoe]

090813-N-1644C-008 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 13, 2009) The remains of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher are carried by members of a Navy honor guard past family members into a waiting hearse at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. Speicher was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Anbar province, Iraq the on first day of offensive operations during Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Anthony C. Casullo/Released)

090813-N-1644C-005 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 13, 2009) Sailors at Naval Air Station Jacksonville pay tribute to Capt. Michael Scott Speicher as his remains pass by shortly after arriving at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Anthony C. Casullo/Released)

090813-N-1522S-007 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 13, 2009) Members of a Navy honor guard carry the remains of Capt. Michael Scott Speicher to All Saints Chapel at Naval Air Station Jacksonville in Jacksonville, Fla. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Leah Stiles/Released)

 

[Mumbles]

Thanks for posting Ralph....
very poignant and touching.

 

[Mumbles]

Sorry if this is a repost. Awesome that the charter pilot saluted.

It reminded me of the scene in the HBO movie Taking Chance...

 

[SDNalgene]

I was 7 when CAPT Speicher was shot down and am somewhat surprised at how much I have been affected by the recovery of his body. I don't have any personal connection to him, and despite being an aviator in his community I am two decades removed from him, really don't know anything about him as a man and officer, and haven't had the opportunity to talk to anyone who had the privilege of serving with him. Obviously I am moved by the sacrifice made by any service member who lays down his life in the line of duty, but I have found myself reflecting on why the recovery of his remains has been particularly moving. I think what it comes down to is that it is concrete proof that the promise the nation makes to demand a proper accounting for the missing and the dead is a promise we keep. I remember that promise quite vividly from SERE school and I can't help but get a bit misty looking at the picture of young Marines and soldiers literally running their fingers through sandy dirt on the off chance that two decades later they might find the body of a fallen American. I can't help but feel that as the Navy and the nation keep their promise to CAPT Speicher they are reaffirming it to me and everyone I serve with. And I said misty, no tears, men don't cry...

 

[PropStop]

Was a proud navy moment for me, to see all those sailors standing out there with me, rendering a final salute to a man who gave everything he had. We don't always get it right in the Navy, certainly we all have a lot we complain about, but we send off our fallen the right way and I'm very proud of that.

 

[cdrapollo20]

As someone who grew up in Jacksonville and a FSU Student it is good to see him finally come home. Followed the procession on TV.

Does anyone know who did the flyby? Was it the squadron he was with during Desert Storm?

 

[PropStop]

As someone who grew up in Jacksonville and a FSU Student it is good to see him finally come home. Followed the procession on TV.

Does anyone know who did the flyby? Was it the squadron he was with during Desert Storm?

There was no flyby during the procession, but I dunno about the actual burial/service - it wasn't on the base.

 

[Alpha_Echo_606]

090814-N-1644C-006 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 14, 2009) Mourners pay their final respects to Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher as his flag-draped casket passes in front of Lakeshore Methodist Church where Speicher taught Sunday School. Speicher was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Anbar province, Iraq on the first day of offensive operations during Desert Storm on Jan 17, 1991. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Anthony C. Casullo/Released)

090814-N-1644C-001 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 14, 2009) The Sailors of Naval Air Station Jacksonville gave their final salute to Navy Captain Michael Scott Speicher in front of All Saints Chapel. Speicher was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Anbar province, Iraq on the first day of offensive operations during Desert Storm on Jan 17, 1991. Here, they move his flag-draped casket from the chapel to a waiting hearse. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Anthony C. Casullo/Released)

090814-N-1522S-008 JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (Aug. 14, 2009) Mourners place roses and pay their final respects to Captain Michael Scott Speicher at the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Wall. Speicher was killed when his F/A-18 Hornet was shot down over Anbar province, Iraq on the first day of offensive operations during Desert Storm on Jan 17, 1991. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Leah Stiles/Released)

 

[FastMover]

There was no flyby during the procession, but I dunno about the actual burial/service - it wasn't on the base.

His old squadron (VFA-81 Sunliners) did a missing man formation for the service. It was announced on the internet and I saw them taking off from NAS when I was on the flightline this afternoon.

 

[HeyJoe]

Remarks from Speicher Memorial Service at NAS Oceana

Dick McCrillis spoke today's Memorial Service at NAS Oceana and shared his notes:

Friends and fellow Naval Aviators…

RADM Fox phoned me yesterday afternoon and asked me to pass to this group his greetings from NSAWC and thanks that you are taking time out of your day to honor our mutual friend, Scott Speicher. I am also mindful that I am here as a representative of a generation of Naval Aviators (i.e. old) who are no longer in the cockpit, but who offer for you, today’s warriors, a tangible link to some of the heritage that makes our business so uniquely valuable to our nation. I thank you for giving me a moment to reflect on Scott’s life and his death.

We first crossed paths in the early 80’s when I was an A-7 RAG instructor in VA-174 down at Cecil Field and he was coming through as a replacement pilot. The A-7 was an interesting airplane: with its .5:1 thrust-to-weight ratio it was hard to get off the ground, and it was difficult to land, but it was a sweetheart to fly in between times and it could bomb better than anything else in the tactical inventory. It was a complicated airplane, with all the systems integration we take for granted today being done inside the head of the guy driving the machine. It was hard, but do-able. Even I, the history major- of all people- lived through the experience, but it demanded total concentration and learning how to use the eyes in the back of your head. All this to say, it didn’t take long for us as instructors to recognize which RPs were going to make it and which ones weren’t. And no surprise, we recognized immediately that Scott was one of the guys who would set the standard for his class, and continue to set the standard when he got down to his squadron.

The image you see of him in the papers, cool, calm, composed, was true in every respect. I’m sure you today recognize a small handful of guys on the flight line who everyone wants in their own squadron, the one all the skippers want for a Department Head, the one everyone knows will be CNO one day. I don’t want to belabor the point, but that was Spike from Day One. And above and beyond his Navy life, he had a Real Life with his beautiful wife Joanne and their kids. Everything you heard, basically, is true.

I was on the Joint Staff during the Gulf War, and Admiral Fox & Spike were squadron mates in VFA-81 aboard dear old SARATOGA. His shoot-down was obviously a shock to all of us, in part- I want to be careful how to say this- because we didn’t expect a lot of real opposition from the air, and in part because- as you know- we’re invincible. But it happened anyway. [pause] There was a press pool aboard the ship and I had no trouble the next day identifying their interviewee after the shoot down when he was asked, as only a member of the press can ask, what he thought happened to his squadron mate. MRT’s answer was something along the lines of: “Well, we know there was an explosion and we know it was Spike’s airplane. And what we hope right now is that he’s sitting down in the desert picking at sand fleas, but we really won’t know anything for a while.”

And therein hangs a tale that defined the next 18 years of our lives. We didn’t really know anything about Scott’s fate after the explosion that knocked out his plane. There was a whipsaw of emotions: maybe he ejected, maybe he was killed instantly, maybe he was doing E&E, maybe he was captured. Then the SECDEF in a press conference a couple days after the event intoned, “LCDR Speicher is dead.” And even though we didn’t know of any direct evidence proving the point, we collectively figured the SECDEF did and left it at that. And then the survival theories began to come out of the woodwork, and DOD changed his status every couple of years…

I don’t want to dwell on what went wrong in the years since Scott’s shootdown. I want to focus on a truth that we as Naval Aviators always keep in the back of our minds when we strap on our machines to do battle: the truth that our country will not leave us behind if we fall. We’ve all read the stories of the WW II vets and the searches for remains in the jungles of Vietnam. But I have to tell you: Scott Speicher was one of us, right here, right now. And there were times in the last 18 years when we collectively wondered if that principle was being abandoned in Scott’s case. But it wasn’t: the relief I felt last Sunday was palpable when the news broke that we found his remains and he would be properly buried by the family and friends he loved. Scott’s country did not leave him behind, and it will not leave you behind either. It is part and parcel of who we are as Americans, and it is both your heritage and your responsibility to see that this truth continues for the next generation of warriors and the generations after them.

We offer today our thoughts and prayers for Joanne and Buddy and the kids, and to our community of service as Naval Aviators. Thank you, and God bless you all.

 

[cdrapollo20]

His old squadron (VFA-81 Sunliners) did a missing man formation for the service. It was announced on the internet and I saw them taking off from NAS when I was on the flightline this afternoon.

Thanks that I didn't have much luck finding it, I guess it hadn't been posted yet.