Brigadier General Richard Stanley 'Dick' Lord (20 June 1936 – 26 October 2011) from

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...

was a

South African Air Force The South African Air Force (SAAF) is the air warfare branch of South African National Defence Force, with its headquarters in Pretoria. The South African Air Force was established on 1 February 1920. The Air Force saw service in World War II a ...

and Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its Aircraft flight control system, directional flight controls. Some other aircrew, aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are al ...

. He was born in

and attended

Parktown Boys' High School Parktown Boys' High School is a public English medium high school for boys situated in Parktown, a suburb of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is one of the oldest schools in Johannesburg. Parktown Boys' sister school is P ...

. He joined the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

in 1958 and trained as an engineer at RNEC Manadon, before he qualified as a

fighter pilot A fighter pilot or combat pilot is a Military aviation, military aviator trained to engage in air-to-air combat, Air-to-ground weaponry, air-to-ground combat and sometimes Electronic-warfare aircraft, electronic warfare while in the cockpit of ...

in 1959. Whilst serving in the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm, he flew Sea Venom and

Sea Vixen The de Havilland DH.110 Sea Vixen is a British twin-engine, twin boom-tailed, two-seat, carrier-based fleet air-defence fighter flown by the Royal Navy's Fleet Air Arm from the 1950s to the early 1970s. The Sea Vixen was designed by the de Havi ...

aircraft and qualified as an Air Weapons Instructor. In 1968 Lord did a two-year exchange tour with the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

NAS Miramar Marine Corps Air Station Miramar (MCAS Miramar) is a United States Marine Corps installation that is home to the 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing, which is the aviation element of the I Marine Expeditionary Force. It is located in Miramar, a commu ...

flying A-4 Skyhawks and

F-4 Phantoms The McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II is an American Tandem#Aviation, tandem two-seat, twinjet, twin-engine, all-weather, long-range supersonic aircraft, supersonic jet interceptor aircraft, interceptor and fighter-bomber that was developed by ...

. There he wrote the USN Air Combat Manoeuvring Manual and his training methods were instrumental in the creation of '

Top Gun ''Top Gun'' is a 1986 American action drama film directed by Tony Scott and produced by Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer, with distribution by Paramount Pictures. The screenplay was written by Jim Cash and Jack Epps Jr., and was inspired ...

' in 1969. His theory was put into practice by other British pilots on exchange, or lent from UK-based training units, such as 764 NAS Air Weapons Instructors (AWI) Course at

RNAS Lossiemouth Lossiemouth () is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the past 250 year ...

. He completed tours of air warfare instruction flying

Hunters Hunting is the Human activity, human practice of seeking, pursuing, capturing, and killing wildlife or feral animals. The most common reasons for humans to hunt are to obtain the animal's body for meat and useful animal products (fur/hide (sk ...

from the naval air stations at

Lossiemouth Lossiemouth () is a town in Moray, Scotland. Originally the port belonging to Elgin, Moray, Elgin, it became an important fishing town. Although there has been over 1,000 years of settlement in the area, the present day town was formed over the ...

, Scotland and

Brawdy Brawdy () is a village, parish and Community (Wales), community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Etymology The Welsh language Welsh placename, name appears to be an archaic form of "Bridget" and the parish may originally have been Llanfreudeth. The Eng ...

, Wales. He returned to South Africa in the early 1970s and joined the

, flying Impalas,

Sabres A sabre is a type of sword. Sabre, Sabres, saber, or SABRE may also refer to: Weapons and weapon systems * Sabre (fencing), a sporting sword * Sabre (tank), a modern British armoured reconnaissance vehicle * Chinese sabre or ''dao'', a variet ...

and Mirage Ills. During the Border War, he commanded No 1 Squadron, flying Mirage F1AZs. His last tour of duty was as commander of the Air Force Command Post. He was mentioned in Dispatches and awarded a Distinguished Service Cross for his role in the very successful rescue of all 581 people from the ill-fated cruise-liner '' Oceanos'' in 1991. Before retiring in 1994, he was tasked to organise the fly-past at the inauguration of

Nelson Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela ( , ; born Rolihlahla Mandela; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African Internal resistance to apartheid, anti-apartheid activist and politician who served as the first president of South Africa f ...

President of South Africa The president of South Africa is the head of state and head of government of the Republic of South Africa. The president directs the executive branch of the government and is the commander-in-chief of the South African National Defence F ...

. Upon retiring he took up a very active and successful career in writing, documenting his military career in a number of popular books. * ''Fire, Flood, and Ice: Search and Rescue Operations of the South African Air Force'' (1998) * ''Vlamgat: The Story of the

Mirage F1 The Dassault Mirage F1 is a French fighter and attack aircraft designed and manufactured by Dassault Aviation. It was developed as a successor to the Mirage III family. During the 1960s, Dassault commenced development of what would become t ...

in the South African Air Force'' (2000) * ''From Tailhooker to Mudmover: An Aviation Career in the Royal Naval Fleet Air Arm, United States Navy and South African Air Force'' (2003) * ''From Fledgling to Eagle: the South African Air Force during the Border War'' (2008) * ''Standby! South African Air Force Search and Rescue'' (2010) (an updated edition of ''Fire, Flood and Ice''). Brigadier General Dick Lord died on the 26 October 2011 after a long illness.

References

South African Air Force generals 1936 births 2011 deaths South African writers Alumni of Parktown Boys' High School {{SouthAfrica-mil-bio-stub