[Submitted Courtesy J. Poe Jr ]

Gulf War MIA's Widow Suing Motorola

Charges Radio Failure Caused Capture

U.S. Veteran Dispatch
By Linda Bordner

September 1999

When Lt. Cmdr. Michael Scott Speicher nosed his F-18 Hornet into the sky above the USS Saratoga on January 16, 1991, he led the way for the American troops of the Persian Gulf War. One thing everyone said about the thirty-three year old Navy pilot--He really loved to fly. About the only thing everyone agrees on after that is the fact that he never returned.

Could a faulty survival radio have played a part in the disappearance of Lt. Cmdr. Speicher? His widow, Joanne Speicher Harris, has filed suit against Motorola, manufacturer of the AN/PRC military radio, according to a Times-Union article by John Fritz.

Two hours and fifteen minutes after take-off, Speicher's wingman reported seeing a flash of fire from the direction of the fighter jet. Pentagon officials quickly declared him dead. Eight years later, the mystery of his disappearance continues to flare up.

Citing previously suppressed evidence indicating Cmdr. Speicher safely ejected from his FA-18 Hornet, attorneys for Ms. Harris point to radio failure as why he may have been unable to call for help after parachuting into the western Iraqi desert. Motorola responded that no "widespread" problems with the equipment existed.

In fact, Motorola spokesman Laurence Moore defended the product by noting the government continued buying the radios, to the tune of over 20,000 over a ten-year period, calling it proof of "overall satisfaction with the product."

Harris's attorneys disagree, claiming instances of pilots' refusal to fly with the particular radio in question, because they couldn't trust it to work.

Pentagon sources denied knowledge that the Navy pilot survived the crash, or was captured by Iraqis, or may have been left for dead with a defective survival radio. Soon after his disappearance in Iraqi skies, the U. S. Government listed Speicher as killed in action (KIA). Repeated efforts to change his status from KIA to missing in action (MIA) were unsuccessful.

The official Pentagon account documented the craft "blown to bits," with no survival possible. Later, this came under question when accounts began to surface of a man claiming to have seen the plane intact on the desert floor. It might have been easy to discount the word of a stranger, except for one thing.

The man who showed up at the American embassy was difficult to ignore. Not only was he an officer in the Qatar military, he had photos of the Hornet. (See story New Evidence on First Gulf War Casualty.) Although reported to have stumbled on the crash site while hunting for game, Robert Sporher, Ms. Harris's attorney, describes a different scenario.

In Fritz's article, he relates Sporher's account that it was desert nomads, selling parts of the F-18 in a market bazaar, that caught the attention of the Qatar officer. When questioned, they supposedly led the officer to the site, where he took photographs as proof of his find.

When he disappeared, Speicher left his wife and two infants, then one and three. Perhaps the suit filed by his widow may finally shed more light onto the shadowy mystery of what really happened to Michael Speicher. His children, now nine and eleven, deserve nothing less than growing up to learn the truth about the hero they called Daddy.

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Graphic Courtesy Bear317