I believed it to be an American officer he shot in the head?

From what research I have done and the digs by anons I'd be willing to bet it was Navy pilot Scott "Spike" Speicher. Even what wikipedia has on him is strange.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Speicher

Michael Scott Speicher (July 12, 1957 – unknown) was a naval aviator in the United States Navy who was shot down over Iraq during the Persian Gulf War becoming the first American combat casualty of the war. His fate was not known until 2 August 2009 when the U.S. Navy reported that Speicher's remains had been found in Iraq by the United States military. The official cause of death was "homicide by undetermined means" and DNA testing showed survival after his crash. He is also the most recent American to have been shot down in air-to-air combat.

Loss Incident

Speicher was flying an F/A-18 Hornet fighter, BuNo 163484, when he was shot down by Iraqi Air Force (IQAF) aircraft 100 miles west of Baghdad, in the early hours of 17 January 1991, the first night of Operation Desert Storm. His plane crashed in a remote, uninhabited wasteland[2] known as Tulul ad Dulaym at 33°14′35.81″N 42°21′18.14″E. He was the first combat casualty for American forces in the war.

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