Picked this one up off of Facebook (H/T Ken Adams), but haven't seen anything anywhere else. If true, this would be some measure of closure for the Speicher family.
As a newly-minted Lieutenant, I remember reading message traffic aboard USS THOMAS S. GATES (CG 51) while on watch one night early in the first Gulf War. In my stack was a very odd message, one that seemed to convey a good deal of information about a LT Michael Scott Speicher. The Captain happened to be in CIC at the time (Hank Giffin, all honor his name), and I asked him what I was looking at. He explained that it was a message sent out after a pilot had gone down containing personal information that search and rescue forces could use as low-level challenge and reply when they were attempting to rescue the pilot.
When you're on a cruiser in the Northern Red Sea (one without TLAM, mind you), your connection to the events ashore is a bit less than for others in the conflict. At that moment, with that message, a 25 year old realized that his country was at war and good people were going to die.
No comments:
Post a Comment