Navy May Close Case Of Missing Pilot

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News/AP

The family of a Navy pilot missing since his plane was shot down during the first Gulf war isn't ready to give up hope that he is alive and say they will oppose any decision to declare him killed in action.

The Navy has scheduled a review board hearing for Monday on the status of Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher, who has been missing since January 1991, when his FA-18 Hornet was shot down in Iraq on the first night of the Persian Gulf War.

The hearing comes several months after the Navy received a fresh intelligence report on Speicher from Iraq.

Speicher's family, which has seen the latest information, believes Navy Secretary Donald Winter is moving toward changing Speicher's status from missing/captured to killed, according to family spokeswoman and attorney Cindy Laquidara.

The family - including two college-age children who were toddlers when Speicher went missing - believes the Pentagon should do more to determine definitively what happened, Laquidara said. They see the outcome as setting a standard for future missing-in-action investigations, she said.



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