Terry DeFrancis was a member of the United States Army Air Corps during the Second Great War. While a colonel, DeFrancis was made commander of the air wing of General Abner Dowling's Eleventh Army in Houston and Texas with initial orders to "smash" the Confederate air power in west Texas. To do this, Dowling's air contingent was tripled in strength. Both were puzzled by the War Department's sudden interest but it was caused by the successful Confederate air raid on the U.S. superbomb works in Hanford.