Pilot Was First Casualty Of Desert Storm

Secretary of the Navy Donald Winter determined Tuesday the status of Captain Michael Scott Speicher is changed from "Missing/Captured" to "Missing-In-Action" (MIA).

This determination was made after a review of available information; including the report and recommendation of a Status Review Board and comments provided by the Speicher family, as well as a Defense Intelligence Agency assessment.

Speicher (right) was the first casualty of Operation Desert Storm. His F/A-18A Hornet was downed by hostile action on January 17, 1991, during the first manned air strike of the war, and he was declared "Killed-In-Action/Body-Not-Recovered" in May 1991. His status was changed in 2001 to MIA, and then again to Missing/Captured in 2002 based on sighting reports in Iraq.

The Navy said those sightings have since been discredited... though in January 2009, a Navy review board agreed with family members and concluded the government needed to do more to find out what actually happened to Speicher, before changing the airman's status again.

In October 2008, the intelligence community concluded that Speicher is deceased, though his remains are unlocated. Based on that assessment, the Secretary of the Navy convened a Status Review Board to consider whether Speicher's status should remain Missing/Captured or should be changed.

FMI: www.navy.mil