52 years after Kennewick High grad dies in Vietnam War, his family has new hope

The sister of Air Force Maj. San D. Francisco has new hope that his burial site may yet be found nearly 52 years after his F-4 Phantom jet fighter was shot down.

Areas covering hundreds of square feet at two sites in North Vietnam have been excavated since 2015 without finding his remains.

As digging wrapped up on the second likely site in spring 2019, Terri Francisco-Farrell feared it would be the final effort to bring home her brother, a Burbank native and 1962 graduate of Kennewick High.

She believes he died saving the lives of those on a search and rescue mission to find the pilot and Francisco, the co-pilot of their jet fighter on a reconnaissance mission over the Ho Chi Minh Trail on Nov. 25, 1968. He was promoted to major after his death.

Since 2015, when excavations began, two sites have been painstakingly dug up, covering hundreds of square feet down to 4.5 feet deep without finding Francisco.

The sites were identified after about 35 witnesses came forward in 2013-14, many of them now in their 70s and 80s, to provide information to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

But despite five years of failed excavations the agency has not given up.

It reached out to witnesses again and two of them were independently taken to the two excavated sites in August 2019.

Both said they were in the wrong place, Francisco-Farrell said she was told by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

Each said that they thought Francisco was buried on the backside of the first site excavated and near a tunnel not far from a road, she said.

“I have lots of hope — more than I did before,” Francisco-Farrell said.

But the COVID pandemic has interfered with efforts to start a new excavation.

As another dig was planned this year during the dry season of March, April and May in Vietnam, the country shut its borders and stopped issuing visas because of the pandemic.

Shot down over Vietnam

U.S. officials believe Francisco’s body was placed in a bomb crater, then dug up within days so photographs could be taken for Vietnamese Army propaganda because of the claim that his was the 2,000th plane shot down during the war.

He was reburied in the same area.

But it’s difficult to be sure of the exact location, as landmarks have changed in Vietnam’s thick vegetation after a half century.

Francisco had joined ROTC as a junior at what is now Central Washington University in Ellensburg. After graduation in 1966 he spent two years in Air Force training.

On Nov. 25, 1968, he was a first lieutenant co-piloting an F-4 Phantom jet fighter, volunteering for the mission after one of the original crew fell ill, his sister said.

When his fighter was shot down, both pilot and copilot survived.

But Francisco had two broken legs, his sister said. The pilot was killed resisting capture.

There was garbled radio contact for about 30 minutes after the plane went down, but it is not known if it was Francisco or the pilot, Francisco-Farrell said.

Vietnamese witnesses say that as Francisco was being taken into captivity, he was hit by shrapnel from American bombs, his sister has been told.

However, Franciso-Farrell said she has doubts about the validity of reports from witnesses who were paid for information.

Protecting search and rescue

She believes he died saving the lives of those on the search and rescue mission.

He was dragged into an open area by his captors, his sister believes, in an attempt to ambush the Americans looking for him.

She believes that’s when a rescue helicopter arrived and he was spotted. He made eye contact with the pilot. But he would not lift his hands to the ladder and put the rescue crew in danger.

As soon as he didn’t reach up for the ladder, an ambush started.

American aircraft came in low and strafed the area, and her brother’s captors ran, Francisco-Farrell said.

Finding his body could reveal how he died.

As the United States observes another Veterans Day with Francisco body still not returned to the United States, there are two things Tri-Cities area residents can do to help, his sister said.

They can pray and they can contact the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency to ask that when the Vietnam borders reopen, that an excavation for Francisco be one of the first to be done.

The agency can be contacted through its website at dpaa.mil/Contact/Contact-Us/.

This story was originally published November 10, 2020 at 2:07 PM.