This just in: remains of Captain Speicher found

[MillCreek]

Many of us will recall the story of Lt. Commander Scott Speicher, a F/A-18 pilot who was shot down on the first day of Operation Desert Storm, back on 1/16/91.

For years, it was not known if he died in the crash or survived and was taken prisoner.  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32257391/ns/us_news-military  tells the story of his body just being identified.  It now appears as if he died at the crash or shortly thereafter.  He was buried at the crash site by the local Bedouins.  Recent intel led investigators to the burial site.  A jawbone was recovered and is consistent with Captain Speicher's DNA. 

Rest in peace, Captain.

[Ben]

At least now some peace for his family.

RIP.

[Cromlech]

RIP

As morbid as it may seem to discuss it, better to have died in the crash than in a prison camp. 

[PTK]

I'm glad to hear that he was at least buried.

[SADShooter]

RIP. I hope this news eases the burden on his friends and family.

[Kwelz]

Rest in peace.

And props to the locals for paying respect to the man by burying him. 

[Stand_watie]

     I wonder what the political affiliations of those who buried him were?

[Scout26]

     I wonder what the political affiliations of those who buried him were?

Probably didn't matter, more of an Bedouin/Arab/Islamic cultural matter, then political.

I do remember being in the TOC the first night of the war and hearing the report that a F/A-18 was missing....

RIP and Welcome Home CAPT Speicher.

[stevelyn]

It's good to know that he was actually given a burial by the folks that found him.

[Leatherneck]

The Bedouins have a pretty strong warrior ethos.

RIP Scott.

TC

[Stand_watie]

Probably didn't matter, more of an Bedouin/Arab/Islamic cultural matter, then political.

I do remember being in the TOC the first night of the war and hearing the report that a F/A-18 was missing....

RIP and Welcome Home CAPT Speicher.

Perhaps not the norm, but desecrating corpses of enemies isn't unheard of in some Arabic instances. Which made me wonder if this particular group of guys harbored feelings of either ambivelence or benificence toward U.S. Airmen. Certainly they could have garnered a few brownie points from the Hussein regime with a Mogadishu style public desecration.

[Firethorn]

Perhaps not the norm, but desecrating corpses of enemies isn't unheard of in some Arabic instances. Which made me wonder if this particular group of guys harbored feelings of either ambivelence or benificence toward U.S. Airmen. Certainly they could have garnered a few brownie points from the Hussein regime with a Mogadishu style public desecration.

Probably ambivelance - they found a body, they buried it.  Probably said a generic prayer.

Many of these types are pretty apolitical, especially on the world scale.