SHOT DOWN - Fighter Pilot Recounts Memory of Capt Scott Speicher

[@werewolf5674]

I was on the Saratoga when this happened. We all felt they left him behind.

[@WhiteOwlOnFire_XXX]

I was too, I was dumbfounded they let it happen.

[@bigdaddy7119]

They did.

[@Rwoods23]

That’s America for ya

[@avolunienu3665]

Yeah it was shit my taco stand got busted too

[@PostalWorker14]

Who knows

[@sonora108]

Great seeing the Admiral again, I served with him in VFA-132 onboard Corel Sea 85/86.

[@Dstew57A]

This was a fantastic interview. Talked about some of the intimate details of what happens in situations to include what the families may have gone through

[@KGSpradleyAuthor]

I can put you in touch with the guy who found him. He was working as an interrogator at Abu Ghaib in 03 when a Fedayeen COL approached him with a story if he could get cash and his family to US he would tell him what happened to Scott Speicher. It’s a long story but basically killed by Bedouins before Fedayeen could get there. Thought he was an Egyptian commando.

[@afterburnpodcastclips]

Would be great, shoot me an email rain at theafterburnpodcast.com

[@KGSpradleyAuthor]

@@afterburnpodcastclips just sent. Thanks again. Great channel!

[@KGSpradleyAuthor]

@@afterburnpodcastclips sent.

[@alikanaluai8172]

Nice! My platoon found his PRC in a weapons cache in the LSAA area in 2005. S2 ran the serial number and found out it was Speicher's. That find helped restart the search for him again...14 years later. It was basically a cold case as far as i knew. The interrogations of the families who owned the land we found it on gave OSI more intel. They said it was received in a trade from another tribe. Eventually OSI was able to track it to the nomad tribe who found and buried him. As far as i heard, the Shiek took them to the burial spot.

[@lukewilliams8835]

So he survived? Man.

[@couchfighter]

Local Bedouins found/burried him. his remains were recovered

[@markr447]

Scott was not supposed to launch that night. He was ready alert incase another Hornet couldn't launch with the strike. He was the last Hornet to launch from Saratoga and was in the trail end of the strike group and the AWACS new the Mig was there and no assets were diverted to deal with the threat.

[@deancrawford6116]

Someone did write a really good book about it, It is called An American In The Basement

[@lcskibird8883]

I got the story from Shaggy on my airline trip, totally amazing story, I had to apologize for asking so many questions over three days.

[@midlifewithkopai3598]

i HAVE FOLLOWED THIS FOR YEARS.

[@stoots1000]

Canopy found couple of kilometers away..but flight suit was found close to wreckage?

[@maryhoupt6449]

What a very sad and tragic story that broke my heart! May this hero rest in eternal peace and many prayers to his family. I hope this will be a “lesson” to all branches of our military…no man or woman left behind. Either “suspected” KIA or otherwise. They need to be recovered and not speculate that they “probably“ met their demise. End of story. 🇺🇸💔🇺🇸

[@afterburnpodcastclips]

Rough time, I think we have learned a lot over the years. My hope is if it happened today it wouldn't be the same story of uncertainty.

[@werewolf5674]

@afterburnpodcastclips Our Tomcats and other F18 where I'm the general area. They could have been sent to check. The CSAR should have been launched. I can tell you onboard the Sara we were ready to go find him. We didn't have Helos who could do that then. Navy SAR was not allowed to laugh. On the ship, we told later they were sure he was lost. It still enrages me. "NO MAN LEFT BEHIND " is just talk.

[@bigdaddy7119]

Before I voice my opinion, I’m going to make a disclaimer here; I’m an Army Desert Storm veteran and spent 13 years in, as both a Chinook mechanic/gunner and later, a Combat Medic. That being said, while I firmly agree that we should NEVER leave ANYONE behind, I can see both sides of it to a point. For starters, fighter pilots as well as many other military members attend SERE school (Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape) just for scenarios like like this, because immediate rescue is never guaranteed. When someone is lost/missing in a hot area or when conditions are otherwise hazardous, you don’t want risk losing other assets and/or personnel. Especially considering they had no contact with him on the radio. Also, everyone that swears the oath fully understands that you can very well pay the ultimate sacrifice in serving our country, or become a POW which is why the Code Of Conduct exists. That being said, I know for a fact that people were chomping at the bit to go in after him, regardless of his situation. I would’ve been the same way, and am a firm believer in leaving NOBODY behind, alive OR dead. Period. Everybody I served with feels the same way, even though we knew the risks involved, but the ultimate decision is way above our pay grade and up to the political types. All said and done, and without the armchair quarterbacking, my opinion is this; right after he went down, going in to rescue him or his remains wasn’t feasible due to the high probability of losing more people and equipment considering the area it happened in and it being hot. BUT…..we should have went in at the FIRST feasible opportunity and rescued him or his remains instead of leaving him behind in that vast, empty desert. We HAVE learned our lessons from that as was shown in Operation Gothic Serpent (Black Hawk Down), where guys went in and recovered the bodies of the dead aircrew, even by cutting them out of the aircraft to bring them home. Spike’s whole situation was a political cluster f**k and should’ve went differently.

[@stay_at_home_astronaut]

Speicher's first cousin was a TSA agent in Atlanta. I chanced upon him a few days after his remains were found.

[@afterburnpodcastclips]

Wow, that’s a very small world

[@lgonzalez1154]

Wow poor bastard! This makes me sick to hear how we left a great man behind! I salute you sir!

[@rodneymcvey1059]

I worked for Cmdr Anderson, at Boeing on the F15 line

[@tonygagey]

At the end of the day, Lord Alfred Tennyson put it best. Ours is not to wonder why, Ours is not to give reply, ours is but to do, or die.

[@marcelopiriz4233]

Fue derribado por el MiG de Zuhair Dahood en la primera noche del combate. Mintieron cuando decían que la aviación iraqui no causó daños, al menos tres aviones fueron derribados por pilotos iraquies

[@عليالجبوري-س2د5ح]

The one who shot down Speicher is the heroic Iraqi pilot Zuhair Daoud. My greetings to you, oh Falcon of Iraq. You are lying. The pilot Zuhair Daoud never shot down. He is my heroic uncle. I am proud of you.

[@عليالجبوري-س2د5ح]

The second heroic pilot is Colonel Pilot Nafeh Al-Jubouri Al-Saqr, the Iraqi Mirage F1 pilot who shot down an American F111 plane in 1991. His plane was shot down in Syria.

[@cfitzgduke]

Did that not finally find his body or bones and dental by the crash site, buried by bedowins?

[@midlifewithkopai3598]

I heard from someone who knows his remains was recovered after we went into IRAQ? not true? some tribal people had buried him?

[@GM-xk1nw]

Good job Lieutenant Zuhair Dawood

[@marcelopiriz4233]

Excelente 👌

[@onebridge7231]

I really can’t feel sorry for Scott. The chance to be a Navy fighter pilot was a dream of mine as a kid, but poor vision ended that dream. I ended up in Submarines instead. The ability to do what you dream of is a great accomplishment for Scott, but I do feel bad for his family as Scott’s crash site should have been quickly secured by our troops in the area at the time. He shouldn’t have been lost until 2009.

[@davidkoon767]

A MIG21 A F4 WILL TAKE THAT OUT NOT IMPRESSIVE AT ALL MIG29 WINS EASY LOADED HORNET

[@typehyuga607]

Bot

[@davidkoon767]

GLAD HORNET DID NOT RUN INTO A MIG 29 FULLY LOADED HORNET ODDS ARE WOULD HAD LOST TO MIG29 F15 HANDED IRAQ A LOSS

[@tdyblgm24]

Lol

[@SteelbeastsCavalry]

We'll never know.

[@mike_oe]

Why are you SHOUTING, David Koon???

[@seantiz]

I think your caps lock key is stuck.

[@flyboyone]

A Classic Hornet (especially A and B models but also thought to Ds) with the GE F-404 or F-404 Plus, engines at Max Dry Thrust (Max Mil Power, no after burner) , fully loaded with three bags of Gas and the other hard points loaded with AIM-9s, AMRAMs, maybe even some Hell Firers., flys like a "Fat Pig" even at FL330! If you get Jumped in that configuration by a lean Mig-29. You are Dead Meat !!!!!