ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, December 15, 1995 TAG: 9512180044
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: WASHINGTON
SOURCE: Associated Press|
The Pentagon learned two years ago that wreckage of a U.S. Navy plane had been found in Iraq but kept the exact site secret from even the Iraqi government until last week, U.S. defense officials said Thursday.
A team of U.S. specialists and officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross has been at the site this week looking for remains of the pilot, who is among 13 Americans killed in the Gulf War whose bodies were never found.
The search mission itself was secret until reported Thursday by the Boston Globe and The New York Times.
The pilot, Lt. Cmdr. Michael Speicher, 33, of Jacksonville, Fla., was the first U.S. combat casualty in the 1991 war in which U.S.-led coalition forces expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The exact circumstances of his loss remain unclear.
The Red Cross and U.S. officials entered Iraq Dec. 9 with Iraqi escorts, Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said. He declined to say what, if anything, they had found so far. ``We want to wait until they get out,'' he said.
Another spokesperson, Beverly Baker, said the search team would stay at least until today and possibly until Tuesday, the deadline Iraq set for their departure. She said there was not yet any word on whether they had found remains.
Baker said Washington did not tell the Iraqi government exactly where the wreckage was found until a few hours before the search team entered the country. This was done to prevent the Iraqis from tampering with the evidence, she said. The search itself was kept secret out of concern that publicity might upset the Iraqis and jeopardize the chances for success, Baker said.
Bacon said a party of hunters, whom he did not further identify, happened upon the crash site two years ago. He did not pinpoint the location.
The Globe reported Thursday the site was about 120 miles west of Baghdad, the Iraqi capital.
The Globe reported that the hunters found the F-A-18 fighter plane's canopy and several other parts, including the nose cone, in reasonably good condition.
Bacon said the hunters photographed the site and brought back a piece of the wreckage that enabled the Pentagon to confirm that it was an American plane.
``After that, through an extraordinary act of technological detective work, we were able to locate the whereabouts of the plane,'' Bacon said.
LENGTH: Medium: 53 linesby CNB