Squadron Leader John Peters (born 1961) is a former

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 ...

of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

(RAF).

Early life

He attended the independent Churcher's College in east

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South East England. It is bordered by Berkshire to the north, Surrey and West Sussex to the east, the Isle of Wight across the Solent to the south, ...

, leaving in 1980. By the age of 17, he had his pilot's licence. He attended the

University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology The University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST) was a university based in the centre of the city of Manchester in England. It specialised in technical and scientific subjects and was a major centre for Research univer ...

(commonly known as UMIST, now part of the University of Manchester since 2004), gaining a BSc in Building Technology in 1983. He was an RAF university cadet, joining the RAF in 1979, training at

RAF Woodvale Royal Air Force Woodvale or more simply RAF Woodvale is a Royal Air Force Station located next to the towns of Formby and Ainsdale in an area called Woodvale which is located to the south of Southport, Merseyside. Woodvale was constructed a ...

with the Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron. He later graduated with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...

from the

University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...

Career

After his RAF training, he was based at RAF Chivenor, RAF Lossiemouth and RAF Laarbruch. He became a staff pilot in 1987 at the Air Navigation School (ANS) of No. 6 Flying Training School at RAF Finningley. In 1988, he moved to XV Squadron at RAF Laarbruch after converting to the Tornado GR1 as a Flight Lieutenant.

Gulf War

On his first mission during

Operation Desert Storm Operation or Operations may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media * ''Operation'' (game), a battery-operated board game that challenges dexterity * Operation (music), a term used in musical set theory * ''Operations'' (magazine), Multi-Man ...

, aged 29, an ultra-low level daylight mission on Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base, while acting as number two to

Squadron Leader Squadron leader (Sqn Ldr or S/L) is a senior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Squadron leader is immediatel ...

Paul "Pablo" Mason, his

Panavia Tornado The Panavia Tornado is a family of twin-engine, variable-sweep wing multi-role combat aircraft, jointly developed and manufactured by Italy, the United Kingdom and Germany. There are three primary #Variants, Tornado variants: the Tornado IDS ...

br>''GR.1''
''of XV Squadron was hit at fifty feet by a shoulder-launched SAM SA-14, and he and his navigator ( John Nichol) were captured by the

military of Iraq The Iraqi Armed Forces are the military forces of the Iraq, Republic of Iraq. They consist of the Iraqi Army, Ground forces, the Iraqi Army Aviation Command, Army Aviation Command, the Iraqi Air Force, the Iraqi Air Defence Command, Air Defence ...

. After capture he was shown, bruised and beaten, on television.'' He received around 25,000 letters from well-wishers following the appearance. He said that he was "treated very specially" as a result of his experiences and found it difficult to live up to the image the public had of him. At the end of the war he was released and returned to the RAF for a further ten years.

Instructor

Having been at RAF Brüggen, he moved to RAF Cottesmore in 1993, becoming an instructor on the TTTE. He graduated with an

from the

Management Centre, with his dissertation being ''The Challenge of Change in the Royal Air Force'' . He became a

in 1997, moving to Turkey, and left the RAF after 18 years.

Publications

Following repatriation by the

Red Cross The organized International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 16million volunteering, volunteers, members, and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ...

, Peters co-authored a book, ''Tornado Down'', with his navigator, John Nichol. As of 2009 he works as a motivational speaker, often at university management schools. He is a practitioner of Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). He has also worked as a representative of the

Association of MBAs The Association of MBAs (AMBA) is a global organisation headquartered in London, UK. It was founded in 1967 with the primary objective of accrediting Master of Business Administration (MBA) programs. Roles Based in London, AMBA is one of t ...

. Since 1999, he has been a partner of UPH Ltd.

Personal life

He is married to Helen and has two children; a daughter Toni and a son Guy, who was commissioned into the

Royal Tank Regiment The Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) is the oldest tank unit in the world, being formed by the British Army in 1916 during the World War I, First World War. Today, it is an Armoured warfare, armoured regiment equipped with Challenger 2 main battle tanks ...

. Guy won the Queen's Medal (awarded to the Officer Cadet gaining the highest score in military, practical and academic subjects) at the

Royal Military Academy Sandhurst The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst (RMAS or RMA Sandhurst), commonly known simply as Sandhurst, is one of several military academy, military academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial Commissioned officer, officer train ...

in 2014. The family live in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Shropshire, Staffordshire, and the West Midlands (county), West ...

near

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about north-east of Worcester and south-west of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 34,755 in at the 2021 census. It gives its name to the wider Bromsgrove District, of which it is ...

. When at Cottesmore, and studying at the University of Leicester, Peters lived in Rutland.

References

External links

UPH Ltd

University of Leicester

Biographical video

News items

{{DEFAULTSORT:Peters, John 1961 births Living people Alumni of the University of Leicester Alumni of the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology British prisoners of war English motivational speakers Gulf War prisoners of war People educated at Churcher's College Royal Air Force squadron leaders Royal Air Force personnel of the Gulf War Shot-down aviators Prisoners of war held by Iraq British people imprisoned in Iraq