Air Chief Marshal Air chief marshal (Air Chf Mshl or ACM) is a high-ranking air officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British i ...

Sir Malcolm David Pledger, (born 24 July 1948) is a retired

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 ...

officer.

RAF career

Pledger was educated at Heywood Grammar School (became part of a comprehensive in 1968 and is now Siddal Moor Sports College) and

Newcastle University Newcastle University (legally the University of Newcastle upon Tyne) is a public research university based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It has overseas campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. The university is a red brick university and a mem ...

, where he read

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

. Pledger then attended the RAF College, Cranwell where he completed his initial officer training. After basic flying training Pledger's flying career was on helicopters. He was appointed

Officer Commanding The commanding officer (CO) or commander, or sometimes, if the incumbent is a general officer, commanding general (CG), is the officer in command of a military unit. The commanding officer has ultimate authority over the unit, and is usually giv ...

No. 28 Squadron in 1978 and then commanded No. 240 Operational Conversion Unit before taking part in the

Falklands War The Falklands War () was a ten-week undeclared war between Argentina and the United Kingdom in 1982 over two British Overseas Territories, British dependent territories in the South Atlantic: the Falkland Islands and Falkland Islands Dependenci ...

and commanding No. 28 Squadron. He became Station Commander of RAF Shawbury in 1990 before being appointed Air Officer Plans at Headquarters Strike Command in 1994. He went on to be Chief of Staff at Logistics Command in 1997, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief at Logistics Command in April 1999 and Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Personnel) in September 1999. He was Chief of Defence Logistics from 2002 to 2005.Forced out
Sunday Mirror, 23 May 2004

Family

He married Betty Kershaw; they have two sons.

References

, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Pledger, Malcolm 1948 births Alumni of Newcastle University Graduates of the Royal Air Force College Cranwell Knights Commander of the Order of the Bath Living people Officers of the Order of the British Empire People educated at Heywood Grammar School People from Heywood, Greater Manchester People from Littleborough, Greater Manchester Recipients of the Air Force Cross (United Kingdom) Royal Air Force air marshals Military personnel from the Metropolitan Borough of Rochdale Royal Air Force personnel of the Falklands War 21st-century Royal Air Force personnel