SPELLACY, DAVID

Name: David Spellacy
Rank/Branch: O3/US Marine Corps
Unit:
Age: 28
Home City: New River Air Station NC
Date of Loss: 25 February 1991
Country of Loss:
Loss Coordinates:
Status: Killed in Action
Status in 2002: KIA/Body Recovered
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: (observation plane)

Other Personnel in Incident: Joseph Small III (released)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 19 March 1991 from one
or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
published sources, interviews. Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 2002

REMARKS: OPERATION DESERT STORM

SYNOPSIS: Observation planes, including such models as the OV10 Bronco, were
among the aircraft most feared by the Viet Cong and NVA forces during the
Vietnam war, because whenever they appeared overhead, air strikes seemed certain
to follow. The aircraft, because they flew low and were only lightly armed, were
also vulnerable to enemy anti-aircraft fire.

Capt. David Spellacy was the observer and Major Joseph Small III the pilot of an
observation aircraft flying as Forward Air Control on February 25, 1991. The
aircraft was shot down by enemy fire. The incident was not initially announced
by the Pentagon. Both crewmen were missing.

On March 6, 1991, Small was released by the Iraqis in a group of 15 American
POWs. Spellacy remained missing.

Then on March 12, 1991, without further explanation, the U.S. Government
announced that David Spellacy had been killed in action. It was not announced
whether this declaration was based on the return of remains or was
circumstantial.

=================

FROM USA TODAY MARCH 20, 1991

GULF MARINE GETS FINAL SALUTE
BY BRUCE FRANKEL
USA TODAY

Worthington, Ohio -- A chill wind blew across the flat cemetery tow where
Marine Capt. David Spellacy -- the last unaccounted for U.S. Marine in the
gulf war and father of three -- was buried Tuesday.

Spellacy, 28, a navigator - bombardier, was shot down over Kuwait one day
before the birth of his youngest child, Michael, and two days before the end
of the war.  He is also survived by daughter Amy, 3 and son Matthew, 1.

Seven Marines fired rifles.  Then a flag was removed from Spellacy's
stainless steel coffin, folded and handed to Spellacy's widow, Megan, 28.

Asked later what she'd want known about her husband, Megan Spellacy said, "He
was a wonderful man, a wonderful husband, a wonderful father and a great
Marine.

This is the way he would have wanted to go -- fighting for his country and
protecting (his) men."

She plans to move back to the Columbus area and "raise our children the way
he would have wanted them to be raised -- the right way."

Maj. Joseph Small, pilot of the Bronco OV 10 plane that crashed as it
returned from a mission, watched in steely silence.  

"I came to mourn the loss of my squadron mate and pay my respects to the
family," said Small, who was captured after the crash and eventually was
released with the second group of allied POWs.

More than 300 people attended the funeral earlier at St. Peter's Church where
Mike Zettler, Spellacy's father in law, told mourners "We should compare
David Spellacy to a comet... He lived an intense, shining, brief life.  He
wanted to be a perfect father and a perfect Marine.  He was the best father
I'd ever seen."

Robert Spellacy, 57, said of his son, "He was like a Pied Piper with other
kids."

Family and friends described Spellacy as an optimistic, charismatic and
competitive man, devoted to his family and the Marines.

None of them voiced misgivings about the cause in which he lost his life.

"We (the United States) did what we had to and he did what he had to," said
his brother Dan Spellacy, 30.

Spellacy had an early interest in flying and the military.

He joined the Ohio Air National Guard while at Worthington High School, where
he net his wife.

Following graduation from Ohio University in 1984, he enlisted in the Marine
officers training program.  He graduated from naval flight officer training
in Pensacola, Fla., last April and left Camp Lejeune, N.C., Jan. 5.

"That didn't give him much of a chance to do what he was trained to do," said
his father.

During the service, the Rev. Homer Blubaugh said Spellacy, "made some very
heroic choices.  He saw marriage and the Marines as compatible choices and he
gave himself to both."

Ohio Gov. George Voinovich said Spellacy's death "underscores the fact that
many people made a commitment and a sacrifice... Without men like (him) we
couldn't have fought the war."

Zettler said he always was astonished by Spellacy's optimism  and
cheerfulness and once asked him how he did it.  Spellacy told him, "Mike,
life is too short not to be happy."

Added Settler: "The Middle East is much safer, the world is safer and the
U.S. is more confident now."