Group Captain Group captain (Gp Capt or G/C) 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 Commonwealth of Nations, countries that have historical British influence. Group cap ...

Rowena Atherton is a former

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) officer. With a logistics background, Atherton joined the RAF aged 17 in 1979 and completed training at RAF Henlow. After becoming Station Commander at

RAF Wittering Royal Air Force Wittering or more simply RAF Wittering is a Royal Air Force station within the unitary authority area of Peterborough, Cambridgeshire and the unitary authority area of North Northamptonshire. Although Stamford in Lincolnshire ...

in 2006, Atherton banned RAF Wittering personnel from wearing uniform while off duty. This was in response to reports that personnel from the station were receiving abuse due to the wars in

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

and

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. Atherton deployed to Afghanistan in July 2008 as Deputy Commander Joint Force Support Headquarters.RAF's first female Force Commander ready for Afghanistan
retrieved 27 June 2008

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Atherton, Ro Living people Royal Air Force group captains Royal Air Force personnel of the War in Afghanistan (2001–2021) Women in the Royal Air Force Women's Royal Air Force airwomen Year of birth missing (living people)