In this edition of Parting Thoughts, we remember Jacqueline McIntyre, who died recently at age 93.
McIntyre’s life was defined by her love of dogs and her country. Her husband, Tom, had served proudly in the army during World War II. During the Vietnam War, Jackie decided to honor his service by adopting a platoon of soldiers and the dogs that served by their sides.
McIntyre took it upon herself to boost the morale of the 101st Airborne 42nd Infantry Platoon Scout Dog Unit by sending letters, dog treats, hot chocolate, magazines and a whole lot more, to the soldiers while they were stationed overseas. The soldiers wrote back — and life-long relationships were formed.
After the war, McIntyre lost touch with her “boys,” as she called them. But decades later, she decided to track them down, and that is how she met her friend, Barbara Severni.
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“She did a lot with those boys over in Vietnam,” Severni said. “And then around late ’80s, ’90s, she asked her husband, ‘What happened to my boys?’ and she started to search for them.”
Jackie McIntyre.
Courtesy photo
McIntyre managed to reconnect with about 95 percent of the soldiers in the unit. Severni’s husband was one of them.
“I don’t know how she adopted that particular scout dog group, because there were several,” Severni said. “They had tracker dogs and mine dogs and tunnel dogs and attack dogs.”
The men loved their canine partners, but they didn’t get to keep them — or see them once they came home. After the war, the dogs were euthanized in Vietnam, Severni said.
This bothered McIntyre, so she started writing more letters to people with mailboxes in Washington, D.C. She addressed them to Sen. Hubert Humphrey, Severni said. “She wrote to the Pentagon. She even wrote to the president to try to get these dogs to come back.”
Eventually the policy changed. Now the dogs in scout dog units come home with their soldiers, Severni said.
After reconnecting with the men of the 42nd, McIntyre put together three reunions in Branson, Mo., which were well attended by soldiers from all over the country, Severni said. And after McIntyre’s husband passed away in 2013, those connections endured.
McIntyre kept all her correspondence — and put it to good use. “A few months before she passed away, a woman called (somehow got her phone number) and said, ‘My husband just passed away, and he was in the 42nd but he never talked about the war, really, and and someone so that you might be able to tell me something.’”
“So she said to me, Barb, go back into year ’69 look up so and so. And I went back there in her room, and we found a letter he had written to her. And then I found pictures, so we copied them and sent him to that wife.”
Shortly before she died, McIntyre attended her 75th high school reunion with fellow graduates of Murray High School in St. Paul, another example of how she prioritized making and keeping connections throughout her long life.
The enduring relationships McIntyre made, including those with the guys who called her “42nd mom,” were celebrated at her funeral in readings and song. Severni read a poem titled “A Puppy” written by a soldier that McIntyre kept in her vast collection of correspondence:
Here I sit in Vietnam thinking thoughts of Dad and Mom
How lonely I feel sitting here today
But 10 more months I have to stay
I fight and live in a little tent
Two months here is for the spent
For me and my dog to stay side by side
So there is nowhere that Charlie can hide
My dog will find him, sure as hell
My dog will help me stay alive and well
A faithful friend, he’ll always be
But home again he’ll never see
They stay in Nam and will never see
The home he loves as much as me
You can learn more about the 42nd and McIntyre at 42nd-ipsd.freeservers.com.
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