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I have very mixed feelings about this article. I knew Michael Speicher. I was flying off the Saratoga with the same Airwing (CVW-17) during Desert Shield/Storm. 'Spike' was the only pilot shot down in the first night of the war out of over 1000 sorties, both Navy and AF. His wife had recently given birth to a child. His death was tragic enough even though it was in the line of duty.

I can not comment about behind the scenes meetings of covert ops to go in and recon the crash site that was found months later, but little facts in the article that do not jive make me suspicious that this story is, at the very least, being sensationalized for the purpose of selling newspapers or books.

Within the same day, CVW-17 lost an A-6 (Wetzel/Zaun), also down in western Iraq and included in stats for the first 1,000 sorties. Also, Spike was not a "death" during the war--he was listed MIA. He was not considered KIA/BNR until May 22, 1991. Meghan was 18 months; Michael, his namesake, 3 years old.

Nothing in the article was sensationalized. It was determined to be air wing policy to turn off the ELT, against the advice of SPEAR--the Navy's premier operational intelligence unit. The radios VFA-81 carried on the first strike were new; VFA-83 didn't carry that model radio on the same strike.

Spike's case is unique in the history of the U.S. military in that he is the first and only person to be officially listed as MIA from any war. The behind the scenes investigation into his whereabouts is one of most significant as well. There is much that the fog of war taught us from January 17, 1991, and it continues to unfold around this particular case.