SETTERQUIST, FRANCIS LESLIE

Name: Francis Leslie Setterquist
Rank/Branch: O2/US Air Force
Unit: 14th Tactical Recon Squadron, Udorn AFB, Thailand
Date of Birth: 05 October 1941
Home City of Record: Cloquet MN
Date of Loss: 23 August 1968
Country of Loss: North Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 175400N 1054900E (VE256146)
Status (in 1973): Missing In Action
Category: 4
Acft/Vehicle/Ground: RF4C
Refno: 1259
Other Personnel In Incident: Charles L. Bergevin (missing)

Source: Compiled by Homecoming II Project 15 March 1990 with the assistance of
one or more of the following: raw data from U.S. Government agency sources,
correspondence with POW/MIA families, published sources, interviews.
Updated by the P.O.W. NETWORK 1998.

REMARKS:

SYNOPSIS: On August 23, 1968, aircraft commander, 1Lt. Francis L.
Setterquist, and his navigator, 1Lt. Charles Bergevin, were assigned a low
altitude night reconnaissance mission over North Vietnam. Their aircraft was
the reconnaissance version of the F4 Phantom - the RF4C. The target area was
about 50 miles northwest of Dong Hoi in Quang Binh Province. Clearance to
proceed with the mission was granted and radio-radar contact broken at
approximately 8:30 p.m. No undue concern was felt until 10:59 p.m. when the
aircraft was due back at Udorn and the fuel exhaustion point was reached and
Setterquist's aircraft did not return to base.

A later North Vietnamese news release stated that an RF4 had been shot down,
but there was no mention of the two man crew. Assuming Bergevin and
Setterquist were able to successfully eject and parachute safely to the
ground, it is doubtful they would be able to evade capture due to the large
concentration of enemy forces in their flight area.

While loss coordinates maintained by the Air Force and Department of Defense
indicate that Bergevin and Setterquist were downed in Quang Binh Province,
North Vietnam, Joint Casualty Resolution Center (JCRC) records show a loss
area of Thailand. No explaination is given for this discrepancy.

In 1973, 591 lucky American prisoners were released from North Vietnam.
Bergevin and Setterquist were not among them. Since that time, the U.S. has
recived nearly 10,000 reports of Americans still missing in Southeast Asia,
and many authorities are convinced that hundreds of them are still alive.
The U.S. has not been able to find a way to free any who may still be alive,
or to obtain information on a significant number of other Americans who may
have perished.


Francis L. Setterquist graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1966.

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