W1/US Army. Company A, 2nd Battalion, 17th Cavalry, 101st Airborne Division.
DATE OF LOSS: 24 November 1970. COUNTRY OF LOSS: South Vietnam.
HOME CITY OF RECORD: St. Catherine's, Ontario, Canada.
STATUS (in 1973): Killed/Body Not Recovered. CATEGORY: 4.
LOSS COORDINATES: 162919N 1064756E (XD920237).
LOCATION ON THE WALL: Panel 6W, Row 79.
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WO McIntosh's name as it appears on the Canadian Vietnam Veterans' Memorial, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada. This memorial, also referred to as "The North Wall", is located along the Detroit River, in Ambassador Park. The * beside his name indicates that his body was not recovered.
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IAN McINTOSH
DATE OF BIRTH: 21 September 1945 (Scotland)
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)
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.
The McDonnell Douglas OH-6A Cayuse. This and just about any other helicopter ever made can be found at the Helicopter History Site. Click on the photo to go there. Many thanks!
DETAILS:
On 24 November 1970, Warrant Officer Ian McIntosh was an observer on an OH6A helicopter (tail number 67-16484), flown by Captain 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.)
Captain 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. Captain Young believed WO McIntosh died shortly after the crash. The flames were starting to enter the cockpit, so the pilot pulled himself out. Just as he got out, the aircraft became engulfed in flames. Three minutes later, the helicopter exploded with WO 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 this country who 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; why can't the government give all it's got to see that these men (or their remains) are returned home where they belong?
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