KENNEWICK — Every time the phone rings, Terri Francisco-Ferrell thinks it may be the call that will put an end to 48 years of waiting.
The Kennewick woman learned in June that excavation has started on a site in Vietnam where her brother may be buried.
She is hopeful that at last the remains of Air Force Maj. San D. Francisco may be found.
Francisco, a Burbank native and 1962 graduate of Kennewick High, is one of 1,618 American servicemen still missing in Vietnam.
He was the copilot of an F-4 Phantom fighter-bomber that was shot down over Quang Binh province in the former North Vietnam on Nov. 25, 1968.
More than a dozen Vietnamese witnesses have provided accounts of the incident, with the pilot and copilot surviving the crash. The pilot was later killed by enemy fire and Francisco was killed by a U.S. airstrike.
Two of the witnesses provided general locations of burial sites about a half-mile apart. But the area has become heavily overgrown with tropical vegetation since the war.
Francisco-Ferrell, after years of advocating, learned in March of this year that both possible sites where Francisco may be buried were on a Department of Defense list to excavate sometime in 2016. The excavation must be done between March and September to avoid monsoon season.
She knows that a search started on at least one of the two sites. But the work turned out to be more difficult than anticipated.
The excavation was planned with the care of an archaeological dig, with dirt filtered through a screen to make sure nothing is missed. But the heavy clay of the dig site was difficult to sift through the mesh.
The last Francisco-Ferrell had heard was that the crew would improvise by adding water to form a mixture that would be easier to search. The work is being done by Vietnamese trained by the Department of Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.
She was promised pictures of progress at the dig sites, but has not received any yet, she said.
She’s not sure if excavation is under way at one or both of the sites. She expects the search to have to be done over a wide area because the terrain may look very different than it did more than four decades ago.
If possible remains are found, a DNA analysis will be conducted. She does not know how long that might take, or even if she will be notified of a find before an analysis is done.
She is confident she’s found a good source to match Francisco’s DNA.
She was sorting about six months ago through a scrapbook compiled by her mother, a Kennewick teacher. There, stuck into the book after clippings about regional news in the late 1940s and early 1950s, she pulled out an envelope that contained her brother’s baby teeth.
The waiting for information, knowing that she might finally be close to finding her brother, is more difficult than ever, she said.
“Every time the phone rings, you get excited,” she said.
She does not believe the excavation would have started without the support she’s received from Washington’s congressional delegation. Sen. Patty Murray, Rep. Dan Newhouse and retired Rep. Doc Hastings were particularly helpful, she said.
She also was pleased to have her brother remembered a year ago during the Water Follies air show, thanks to the help of Matt Boehnke, a Kennewick councilman.
He introduced her to the Patriots jet demonstration team, including pilot Paul Strickland. Strickland smiled when Francisco-Farrell said her brother was a “555” Squadron member who flew out of Thailand. Strickland had flown out of the same base for 555, she said.
He was the pilot assigned to pull his jet up in mid-flight – the signature move as the team flew the Missing Man Formation in honor of Francisco and the efforts to find him, along with honoring all service members missing in action.
