AA403 Down

In the midst of all the Katrina madness I happened upon another story of some interest. A Naval board of inquiry has reconfirmed that Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher is still "missing/captured." This story is significant because he has been missing since the opening night of Operation Desert Storm in 1991. I had the pleasure of buying the book "No One Left Behind" while waiting for a flight at Newark Liberty Airport. The book, by Amy Waters Yarsinske is essentially the reason why Speicher's status was changed from dead to missing/captured. He even had a tombstone in Arlington. The significant part of this story is that the review board concluded that there may be high level Iraqis or Bedouin tribesmen who can speak to the status or location of Speicher. The problem in tracking these people is twofold: The Iraqis may not want to speak for fear of reprisal from former administration types still free in the country, and the Bedouins are a nomadic group, meaning they generally don't stay for very long in one place. It's sad to say that we may never know the whereabouts of Speicher, but one can hold out hope.
AA403 is the identification number of Speicher's F-18.