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Francis E. McIntyre
722nd Squadron
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Francis E McIntyre entered the USAAF from Marshall, Indiana.
Duties included basic at Shepherd Field, Tx., Ellington Field, Tx., LaredoTx. Gunnery School and San Marcos Navigation School before graduating in the spring of 1944.
He left for Oran North Africa from Virginia, the trip took one month. Oran to Naples and on to Manduria and the 450th.
He was assigned as a Navigator with the Crew of Glen D. Babbitt in the 722nd Squadron.He was the recipient of the Air Medal with Cluster.
Francis left Manduria in April of 1945 to return to The USA to train in a B-29 but spent the rest o fthe war in Souix Falls, South Dakota.
He graduated from Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Indiana in 1949. After a brief stint working for Inland Container he was recalled and stationed at Carswell AFB, Ft. Worth, Tx.
as a navigatoron a B-36. Francis was the navigator on the B-36 test ship for the Hydrogen bomb explosion, Project Ivy. He received a Commendation for his work.
In 1957 he graduated Southwestern Medical College(University of Texas) in Dallas and married the former Mary Harrell of Indianapolis. They moved to Austin, Texas
for internship and Francis went in to family practice .
In 1970 he took his wife and three daughters to Manduria to show them the base and to track down the laundry girls.
The Count of Oria allowed him and his family to see the castle.
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Dr. Francis Elliott 'Mac' McIntyre, beloved family practice doctor of Austin, died at the age
of 86 on Saturday April 3, 2010 at Seton Hospital from multiple organ failure.
Born May 15, 1923 in the small town of
Marshall, Indiana, Dr. McIntyre became a decorated flight navigator in two
wars, a world traveler, well-known physician and member of the Austin
community.
Growing up, Dr. McIntyre, son of Mary Jane
Elliott McIntyre and veterinarian Dr. Francis Vernon McIntyre, helped his
parents run a family dairy farm, delivering milk in rural Marshall. His
sister Marian recalls that the family's vegetable garden raised sufficient
extra produce to feed other families during the Great Depression.
An avid reader further stimulated by tales
of his Aunt Sylvia's travels, Mac's dreams led him far beyond Marshall. Responding to news of Hitler's rise in
Germany, Mac, a high school senior, asked his father to secure him an
appointment to Annapolis Naval Academy but Mac failed the physical exam because
of the kidney ailment that had kept him bed-bound for much of his junior year.
Eventually, he was able to join the United
States Army Air Force in 1943. Graduating as a second lieutenant, Mac became a
navigator for The Liberator, a B-24 bomber, and crew of the 450th bomb squad,
15th Air Force. He spent substantial time stationed in Italy.
Flying 50 missions, Mac was awarded the Air Medal.
Mac attended Wabash College after the war.
Upon graduation, Mac was recalled to service during the Korean War to navigate
the B36 bomber used as the test plane for the explosion of the first hydrogen
bomb in the Pacific. Mac and his crew escaped the bomb's cloud of
radioactive smoke and heat and although he was not allowed to talk about the
"Project Ivy" mission for many years, he received the Army
Commendation Medal for his participation.
Following the Korean War, Mac attended
the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, followed by an
internship at Austin's Brackenridge Hospital. In 1956, Mac married artist
Mary Eleanor Harrell from Indianapolis, Indiana, raising three daughters
together: Barbara, Sylvia, and Carolyn in Austin.
Mac was a founding member of both the
English Speaking Union and the Austin Yacht Club, and a member of the Rotary
Club. In addition to his North Loop general practice, Dr. McIntyre served
25 years as medical director and a clinician for Planned Parenthood.
Following his 1981 divorce from Mary,
Mac developed a close relationship with Steven and Judith Franden, their
children Kara and Christian, and their seven grandchildren.
In 2006, Mac retired from his 48-year
medical practice. Five generations of the families he treated attended
his retirement party.
Mac stayed active with travel, enjoying the
arts and the opera. His love of history and extensive research took his
adventures to uncommon locations, and made him an entertaining and illuminating
person to travel with.
As recently as June of 2006, Mac was riding
a camel while on a trip to Tunisia with his travel companion Steve Franden and
just last year Mac zip-lined through treetops on the outskirts of Austin.
Mac swam at Barton Springs almost every
day, often with his friend Zoltan Barany, until his hospitalization in January,
and was awarded a Certificate of Service by the Friends of Barton Springs Pool
on November 2, 2009.
During his many sails on Lake Travis, Mac
fascinated friends and family by describing how to navigate by the stars. With his friendliness and curiosity, Mac
crossed social boundaries and charmed nobility around the world.
Dr. McIntyre, preceded in death by his
sister Phyllis McIntyre Hodge, is survived by his sister Marian McIntyre of
Houston; three daughters: Barbara McIntyre of Portland, Oregon, Sylvia
McIntyre-Crook (wife of Larry Crook) of
Gainesville, Florida, and Carolyn McIntyre White (wife of Michael D. D. White)
of Brooklyn NewYork; and five grandchildren: Ethan McCooper, Vanessa and
Alexander Crook, Eve and Audrey White.
Photographs taken throughout his life, along with an assortment of articles can be viewed HERE
More about Mac's life will soon be available HERE
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