...."We have had only one fighter jet shot down by an enemy fighter jet in the last 40 years," said one expert interviewed by Foreign Policy. "We simply don't need to spend over a trillion on a new fighter at this point.".....http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46630101/ns ... 1WfKHJWrbkTjo ! biggest lie i have ever heard on this forum.
Michael Scott Speicher a United States F/A-18 Hornet Navy pilot born on July 12 1957 was shot down 100 miles west of Baghdad during the
Gulf War on the night of
January 17, 1991, the first night of
Operation Desert Storm. His plane crashed in a remote, uninhabited wasteland known as Tulul ad Dulaym 33°14′35.81″N 42°21′18.14″E / 33.2432806°N 42.3550389°E / 33.2432806; 42.3550389. He was the first combat casualty for American forces in the war.
However, an unclassified summary of a 2001 CIA report suggests that Speicher's aircraft was shot down by a missile fired from an Iraqi aircraft, most likely a
MiG-25; flown by Lt. Zuhair Dawood, 84th squadron of the IQAF. Speicher was at
28,000 feet and traveling at
0.92 Mach (540 Knots) when the front of the aircraft suffered a catastrophic event. The impact from the
R-40 missile threw the aircraft laterally off its flight path between
fifty and sixty degrees with a resulting 6 g minimum load. A pilot on the same mission stated: "I'm telling you right now, don't believe what you're being told. It was that MiG that shot Spike down."
The day after the shoot-down, Speicher was placed on MIA status. On
May 22, 1991, after the end of the Gulf War, Speicher's status was changed to Killed in Action/Body Not Recovered (KIA/BNR).
In
December 1993, a military official from Qatar discovered the wreckage of a plane in the desert, which was subsequently identified as Speicher's aircraft.The canopy was a good distance from the rest of the aircraft, suggesting Speicher had tried to eject.
In
April 1994, a U.S. satellite photographed apparent human-made symbols on the desert floor near the wreck's location, which might possibly be Speicher's E & E (Escape and Evade) sign, suggesting that Speicher might have survived the crash.
In
December 1995, working through the International Committee of the Red Cross, investigators from the Navy and Army's Central Identification Laboratory went to Iraq and conducted an excavation of the crash site.
In
September 1996, the Secretary of the Navy in a new review reaffirmed the presumptive finding of death. Speicher was given a tomb at Arlington National Cemetery
In
1997, a Defense Department document leaked to The New York Times showed that the Pentagon had not been forthcoming with information previously requested by U.S. Senator Rod Grams. Senator Grams publicly accused the Pentagon of misleading him, and joined with Senator Robert C. Smith in calling for an investigation by the Senate Intelligence Committee
In
January 2001, the Secretary of the Navy changed Speicher's status to "missing in action."This was the first time the Defense Department had ever made such a change In conjunction with the change in classification, Speicher was promoted to commander
In
July 2002, Speicher was further promoted to captain.
September 12, 2002, President George W. Bush mentioned Speicher in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly as part of his case for war against Iraq.
October 11, 2002, one day after the United States Congress authorized the use of military force in Iraq. Then-U.S. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England said, "While the information available to me now does not prove definitively that Capt. Speicher is alive and in Iraqi custody, I am personally convinced the Iraqis seized him sometime after his plane went down. Further, it is my firm belief that the government of Iraq knows what happened to Capt. Speicher.
March 2003, a major investigation on the ground began, that also further increased public attention to the matter
April 2003, Speicher's possible initials were discovered in a cell at Hakmiyah prison in Baghdad Subsequent tests on hair found in the cell's drain did not match Speicher's DNA.
January 5, 2009, the U.S. Navy held a review board to consider officially closing the case
March 10, 2009, the Secretary of the Navy declared that Captain Speicher's status was changed from "Missing/Captured" back to "Missing-in-Action."
August 2, 2009, the Navy reported that Speicher's remains were found in Iraq by United States Marines from 3rd Battalion 3rd Marines belonging to Multi National Force-West's Task Force Military Police. His jawbone was used to identify him after study at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs at Dover Air Force Base. According to local civilians, Speicher was buried by Bedouins after his plane was shot down. The evidence proved that Speicher did not survive the crash. Senator Nelson attributed the delayed finding to the culture of the locality: "These Bedouins roam around in the desert, they don't stay in one place, and it just took this time to find the specific site."
August 13, 2009, the remains of Captain Michael Scott Speicher arrived in Florida 18 years after having been shot down in the Persian Gulf War. The plane containing his remains touched down at Jacksonville Naval Air Station at 3 p.m.
September 7, 2009, Captain Speicher was honored at the start of the Florida State University football game against the University of Miami at Bobby Bowden Field at Doak Campbell Stadium when a flight of F/A-18s performed the missing man formation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZJqaUTSmkEMod: This post has been edited to delete a personal attack.
I'm also not sure what this has to do with jets in movies?
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