Andy McIntyre – Expedition Member
Andy was born in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, 26 Nov 1969.
He grew up in a small mining village where he attended Carrick Academy, Maybole, achieving 8 ‘O’ Grades but he was inspired by the Falklands conflict and swapped the chance of further education to enlist into the Junior Parachute Company in 1986.
He passed out of the Parachute Regiment Depot after being awarded “Top Recruit” in Dec 1987 and posted to 1st battallion the Parachute Regiment, remaining there for 10 years during which time completing various tours and oversees training exercises, including 4 operational tours of Northern Ireland, trips to Kenya, Germany, Oman, Corsica, Sardinia, France and the USA, as well as a short sabbatical in Motor CycleTraining Centre (MCTC) for being caught! Suitably rehabilitated, he was subsequently posted to the battallion Signals Platoon, rising to the dizzy heights of Corporal.
Andy caught the flying bug during a trip to a Cobra Squadron over in Washington State and subsequently applied for the Army Pilots Course in 1997. This provided a wonderful incentive by his Commanding Officer, in that failure would mean a 2 year posting to a training depot. Andy gained his pilots wings in February 1999 and qualified to fly Lynx helicopters in June of that year.
Andy spent 10 years flying the mighty Lynx, logging just under 3100 hours, during which time he completed 2 tours of Northern Ireland and 8 trips to Iraq. Andy has flown in many environments including jungle, arctic and the desert. finafly managing to squeeze in a mountain leader course during his last six months of Army service.
A keen skydiver, Andy has clocked up 350+ skydives, mainly in the USA, he also enjoys cycling, running and hill walking and his latest vice is searching for WW2 aircraft wrecks in the high areas of the UK.
Andy has relatively little experience of high altitude climbing although he has spent a couple of weeks in Italy in the Gran Sasso region, and plenty of quality mountain days in the UK’s mountainous regions.
Andy is currently on resettlement leave studying for a civilian pilots licence, he intends to work in civil aviation as a helicopter pilot when he leaves the armed forces..
Andy wishes to summit Everest to help raise funds for those service men and women, wounded and maimed both physically and mentally whilst serving in hostile areas overseas, and raise the awareness of the general public as to the magnitude of the situation. Most people on the street have an idea of the number of troops killed in action, however, few can guess as to the numbers injured requiring a lifetime of care and help. ‘Everest 4 Heroes’ has the potential to raise a substantial sum of cash with which to ease their plight.
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