McINTOSH, IAN
Name: Ian McIntosh
Rank/Branch: W1/US Army
Unit: Company A, 2nd Battalion, 17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division
Date of Birth: 21 September 1945 (Scotland)
Home City of Record: St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada
Date of Loss: 24 November 1970
Country of Loss: South Vietnam
Loss Coordinates: 162919N 1064756E (XD920237)
Status (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered
Category: 4
Aircraft/Vehicle/Ground: OH6A
Refno: 1678
Source: Compiled from 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 in 1998.
Other Personnel in Incident: (none missing)
REMARKS:
SYNOPSIS: The OH6A Cayuse (commonly called "Loach") was the result of the
U.S. Defense Department's vision of a single helicopter able to perform such
duties as personnel or cargo transport, light ground attack, casualty
evacuation, observation, and photographic reconnaissance. It proved most
effective at visual reconnaissance, however, searching out the enemy even in
heavily defended areas, as the crew peered through gaps in the jungle canopy
from the oval pod-shaped aircraft.
On November 24, 1970, WO1 Ian McIntosh was an observer on an OH1A helicopter
(tail number 67-16484), flown by Capt. Robert J. Young, on an armed
reconnaissance mission with two Cobra gunships southeast of Khe Sanh.
The aircraft had been flying for approximately an hour and 3 minutes when
the crew observed what appeared to be a new NVA living area. The Cobra
gunships engaged the target, and the OH6A subsequently entered the target
area to assess the damage. The OH6A was hit by automatic rifle fire on the
underside in the left front area where WO1 McIntosh was sitting (nearly the
entire front from above head level to below knee level was glass).
Capt. Young immediately left the target area, noticing that WO1 McIntosh was
in a great deal of pain and trying to straighten up. At that time, the
aircraft engine quit, so the pilot attempted to land in an open area. The
aircraft burst into flames before crashing in the vicinity. Capt. Young
believed WO McIntosh died shortly after the crash. The flames were starting
to enter the cockpit, so the pilot pulled himself out, and just as he got
out, the aircraft became engulfed in flames. Three minutes later, the
helicopter exploded with WO1 McIntosh still inside.
Ian McIntosh was declared Killed, Body Not Recovered. His name appears among
the missing because no body was found to return home for burial. He is one
of two Canadians on the U.S. military rolls of missing, and one of many from
that country that willingly volunteered to fight against the spread of
communism in Southeast Asia.
The cases of many of the missing are not so easily closed. Some were
photographed as captives; some wrote letters home from POW camps. Others
were alive and well the last they were seen or heard from, describing an
advancing enemy. Still others simply disappeared.
Thousands of reports continue to mount that Americans are alive in Southeast
Asia, held prisoners, yet the U.S. seems unable or unwilling to secure their
freedom. Men like Ian McIntosh freely gave all they had for the price of
freedom. Can we turn our backs on these men?
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