NameMary Alice Farabaugh
BirthJan 3, 1931
DeathApr 17, 2008
FatherCharles Louis Farabaugh (1888-1976)
MotherMarie Loretta Kohl (1893-1975)
Spouses
BirthAug 27, 1926, Florida
DeathNov 26, 1967, Vietnam (MIA)
Notes for Mary Alice Farabaugh
Mary and Gene lived in Lulu and Gainesville, Ga.
Notes for Herbert O. (Spouse 1)
Col. Herbert “Bert” Brennan graduated from West Point in 1947 and became an Air Force pilot, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross while serving with the 35th Fighter-Bomber Squadron during the Korean War. He volunteered as a fighter pilot for the Vietnam War. On November 26, 1967, he was the bombardier on a F-4C, with Maj. Douglas C. Condit as pilot. The plane departed from Da Nang Airfield and was downed during its first pass in the vicinity of the Ban Karai Pass in a remote region of the Quang Binh Province of North Vietnam. It was downed either because of hostile fire (an unlucky “golden BB”), or a faulty bomb detonation fuse.

The wingman reported that the plane was seen to burst into flames, without any parachutes seen through the resulting thick smoke. No voice contact was made with the crew, although both of the plane’s beepers were detected, one of which continued over a two hour period, subsequent flybys to search and rescue met hostile file and were unsuccessful. Brennan and Condit were declared MIA and assigned to case 0928.
Brennan was redesignated as Died While Missing, on October 18, 1974, and was included on the Vietnam Wall. The case was actively pursued for both airmen. In 1988, an F-4 crash site was found but could not be positively identified as the site of the Brennan/Condit plane.

In 1992, the investigation took a dramatic turn following the Vietnamese government’s release of the “
Journal of AntiAircraft Combat; Military Region 4; From 1964-1973.” The 84 page report indicated that a diving aircraft on the correlating date was downed with one killed and one captured. A 16 member excavation team was deployed to the area. During a site inspection an unspecified “witness” miraculously produced an identification tag and led the team to a steep slope adjacent to a riverbed, where human remains were found. The remains were recovered along with several items that included survival kit components and evidence of a deployed parachute. These were the remains of Condit, which were repatriated in June of that year. Efforts continued to locate Brennan and the plane. In June of 1993, another F-4 crash site was found in the province at coordinates 48QXE2944521051, and this time there was positive identification when the aircraft data plate found was a match with the number one engine of the Brennan/Condit plane.

With both the plane and the Condit remains found, efforts continued to find Brennan. In 2000, an investigation team returned to the area of the 1993 discovery, but a broader search yielded no significant findings and no re-excavation was recommended.
Various interviews were conducted of Vietnamese officials and former officers in 2005 and 2008, but these did not yield any additional leads. No new details have since emerged over the fate of Col. Herbert Brennan.
Last Modified Nov 3, 2015Created Sep 1, 2022 using Reunion for Macintosh