PORTLAND AIR NATIONAL GUARD BASE, Ore. (AFNS) -- Nearly eighty-two years ago, 1st Lt. Franklin H. McKinney took off in his F-5E Lightning over northern Thailand on Nov. 5, 1944. Assigned to "G" Flight of the 35th Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron during the twilight of World War II, his mission was to conduct aerial photography operations behind enemy lines.
He never returned.
For over eight decades, McKinney was listed as missing in action. Recently, that long silence finally broke. On May 15, when the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA) officially updated his status to “Accounted for,” it marked the culmination of decades of grassroots dedication to not let the past fade into obscurity, and to bring McKinney home.
While military paperwork declared McKinney officially dead in 1946, the circumstances around his disappearance remained a mystery for decades. Little did anyone know at the time that the key to unlocking the mystery sat in a museum in Ban Mae Gua, Thailand, just waiting to be discovered.
"The primary breakthrough was the discovery after a flood at the Thai Air Force Museum in Bangkok — the discovery of a document going back to the second World War, a Thai police report," said retired Lt. Col. Terry Popravak, Jr., 142nd Wing volunteer historian.
The police report from the Thai Royal Air Force, was dated Nov. 5th, 1944; the very day of McKinney’s last flight. It detailed how residents of the village saw a twin-engine plane flying through a vicious storm. According to the report, the plane was struck by lightning, caught fire, and crashed into the island. It further detailed the crash site, noting that the plane was a P-38 with the tail number “811,” and that a skull was found at the crash site. It was the break everyone was waiting for.
“He just kind of disappeared to the skies,” Popravak Jr said. “This gave actionable information, and provided the basis by which DPAA was able to send teams ... to investigate and determine whether or not they could actually find artifacts [or] remains of Franklin McKinney."
While the report was created near the time of the incident, its existence wasn’t discovered until 2012. Upon discovery of the report, there was doubt the aircraft was McKinney’s. McKinney did not fly a traditional P-38, but a F-5E Recon. The two aircraft are very similar and could easily be confused, as the F-5E was essentially a standard P-38 with photo equipment in place of weaponry. What was impossible to ignore however, was the fact that the time and dates in the report aligned perfectly with McKinney’s final flightpath. The coincidence was too much to ignore, but it would take a coordinated, cross agency collaboration to unearth the truth.
In the years that followed, an unlikely ensemble of researchers, aviation enthusiasts, local Thai villagers, and members of the 142nd Wing, worked with the DPAA to confirm the validity of the lost report.
"That sharing of information between private individuals and the government was essential," Popravak noted. "Thanks to experts living in Thailand who have aviation interest, and their connections to others in the aviation history community ... [it] proved vital to getting the information to the right people to be evaluated and acted upon."
DPAA conducted the initial site survey and excavation in 2022, where fragments of the lost F-5E and McKinney’s bone fragments were discovered. The finding was the culmination of the persistence of strangers to not let our lost heroes be forgotten.
After the initial discovery, the Oregon National Guard’s 142nd Wing, McKinney’s home unit, held a ceremony naming the Wing Headquarters main conference room in his honor. Mounted beside the room sits a 1/48 scale model of an F-5E recon aircraft, containing actual metal fragments recovered from the crash site.
Col. Brad Young, 142nd Mission Support Group commander and fighter pilot within the 142nd Wing is grateful to DPAA for their efforts.
“Witnessing firsthand the lengths to which our nation is willing to go in order to find and account for all of our aviators brings comfort to all of our men and women who are willing to put their lives in harm's way to defend this great nation,” Young remarked. “Being able to add McKinney to the list of 'accounted for' and bring our Wing’s Missing-in-Action members from eight to seven is a great moment for us to reflect on the sacrifice of those who have come before us.”
The initial bone fragments collected in 2022 were deemed inconclusive, due to a lack of Family Reference Sample DNA, and the aircraft fragments being circumstantial. Still, the DPAA and everyone involved persisted. This past May, additional bone fragments were collected and the agency was able to positively identify McKinney, and officially change his status from “Missing in Action,” to “Accounted for.”
"It’s become an American tradition that we try not to leave anyone behind in a battlefield," Popravak said. "If we can't get you out right away, then we will make every effort to account for our fallen on the field of battle, wherever in the world they may be. I think it helps within the military to add to our morale... and it's something for the unit to know that we take care of our own."
This year, McKinney’s remains were honored at a ceremony in Bangkok, before being repatriated to the United States. On Aug. 28, he was laid to rest next to his mother and father in Wakefield, Rhode Island.
Nearly 82 years after McKinney’s fateful flight, the WWII hero was finally coming home; all due to the dedication of strangers working together, determined to not let those that have vanished in service to our nation be forgotten.