Tailhook Daily Briefing

What it’s All About

This is what NAVAIR and Tailhook is all about…

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Well done Pinch!

Sorry for the EMCON of late…

Recently returned from a trip to the great up north… you know… that state that if you cut it in half would make Texas the third largest state in the Union.

Then upon my return had to process through the… no joke here… 497 e-mails (all despite my out of office message and to please contact my associates) and 64 voice mails.  Popularity can be good… in this case… not!

So I now return to you yon gentle readers with little to tell (navy related anyway) other than I did get the chance to swing by Bremerton for a spell, actually joining forces with Seattle Tailhooker Ken Schoeni, for a couple of happy hour aperitifs there at Anthony’s at the ferry landing.  We sat enjoying the late afternoon August sun and staring across the bay as the Kitty Hawk continues though her decommissioned paces.

As for the rest of the Alaska Vacation all I can tell you here is if you have not enjoyed the sights, smells, tastes… especially the tastes, of an Alaskan Cruise I highly recommend you book yourself on an Alaskan Cruise (one you get to take the Mrs. with you (or Mr’s for our fairer Tailhookers)) and guess what? You don’t have to serve the Mid-watch! Or the ready tanker.

Shameless plug here, but many have asked… If you would like to see and read the details in text and imagery feel free to cross deck on over to my personal blog “Carmichael’s Position” where all the cool ice, salmon, whales, mountains, trains, seaplanes and big white boats live.  You may even get a taste of some of the Seattle Sea Fair Air Show departures from Boeing Field… assuming you like a little plane prOn.  Oh and yes,  for some of you who may have recognized him, the elder statesman in a few of the photos is indeed RADM(ret) E.I.‘Hoagy’ Carmichael, so if you all ever wondered “Where is he now?” I can tell you where he was a couple of weeks ago!

Now on the some house keeping items:

Tailhook 2009 is just around the corner… September 10-13 in Reno to be precise!  You procrastinators, the time is nigh!  This year promises to be a good one…  “Ain’t they all?”… with an Air Show out at Fallon with our Ambassadors in Blue, The obligatory Bug Roach Mixer where catching up and outlasting your compatriots has become sport, the RADM “Jig Dog” Ramage Recognition Luncheon, and of course the Saturday Evening Semi-Formal Banquet (that means NO Flip Flops to you E-2 guys!). All this and more…  I’m going to be there this year as well, probably hanging our near the Ready Room Booth most of the time, so please feel free to swing by and introduce yourself, and let me know what we can do to improve your reading experience here on TDB.  Rumor has it there may be other reasons, far more attractive than YHS to swing by the booth as well.  See ya there!

More details can always be found over at the Home Site http://www.tailhook.org/ 

 

I’ll try to get back to a little more reasonable delivery schedule, and you can certainly expect updates from the front, as the reunion gets underway in a couple of weeks.

Scott Speicher’s Remains Found!

And according to sources positively identified!

From AP…

WASHINGTON — The remains of the first American lost in the Gulf War have been found in Iraq, the military said Sunday, a sorrowful resolution of a nearly two-decade old question about the fate of Navy pilot Capt. Michael "Scott" Speicher.

The Pentagon said the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology on Saturday positively identified the remains, buried in the desert and located after officials received new information from an Iraqi citizen about a crash.

Speicher's disappearance has bedeviled investigators since his fighter was shot down over the Iraq desert on the first night of the 1991 war.

The top Navy officer said the discovery is evidence of the military's commitment to bring its troops home. "Our Navy will never give up looking for a shipmate, regardless of how long or how difficult that search may be," said Adm. Gary Roughead, Chief of Naval Operations.

In January 1991, Navy pilot, (then) Lieutenant Commander Michael “Scott” Speicher, was shot down while flying a combat mission over western Iraq on the first night of Operation Desert Storm. The next morning, then-Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney told the news media that the United States had suffered one combat loss. When questioned whether or not it had been a death, he confirmed that the service member had been killed.

Four months later, Scott Speicher was declared KIA/BNR—Killed In Action, Body Not Recovered—by the United States Navy. 

In the ensuing years, Scott’s status had me changed from KIA to MIA to even Captured as multiple sources of information began to suggest that Scott had ejected and quite possibly survived the shoot down.

Leads were continually followed by DOD and other agencies, however all kept leading to no definitive conclusions.

Officials said Sunday that they got new information last month from an Iraqi citizen, prompting Marines stationed in the western province of Anbar to visit a location in the desert which was believed to be the crash site of Speicher's FA-18 Hornet.

The Iraqi said he knew of two other Iraqis who recalled an American jet crashing and the remains of the pilot being buried in the desert, the Pentagon said.

"One of these Iraqi citizens stated that they were present when Captain Speicher was found dead at the crash site by Bedouins and his remains buried," the Defense Department said in a statement.

The military recovered bones and multiple skeletal fragments and Speicher was positively identified by matching a jawbone and dental records, said Rear Adm. Frank Thorp.

He said the Iraqis told investigators that the Bedouins had buried Speicher. It was unclear whether the military had information on how soon Speicher died after the crash.

It is with mixed emotion that we at Tailhook great this news.  But at last we can bring our fallen sailor home.