Bringing home Scott Speicher

One of the enduring questions of the Gulf War has been answered, said JoAnne Thomas in Right Pundits. The remains of Navy pilot Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher—the first casualty of Operation Desert Storm in 1991—have been identified through dental records. Speicher was classified as killed in action when his fighter jet was shot down in the opening hours of the war, but later he was classified as missing-in-action, then missing-captured.

It must be a relief to Capt. Speicher's family to finally know what happened to him, said Merv Benson in Prairie Pundit. Locals led Marines to the spot where Speicher's plane was shot down in Anbar province, and said that Bedouins had found the pilot's body at the crash site and buried it. "I hope he gets a hero's burial in this country now."

"I am so glad that the remains have been identified, and the mystery solved," said Michael A. Jacobson at Legal Insurrection. Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher wasn't captured and tortured—it appears that he died on impact. That should be comforting not just to the family, but to all Americans, because the Speicher case had taken on "a special meaning in our consciousness."

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