John Peters (RAF officer)
Squadron Leader John Peters is a former pilot of the Royal Air Force.
Early life
By the age of 17, he had his pilot's licence. He attended the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, gaining a BSc in Building Technology in 1983. He was an RAF university cadet, joining the RAF in 1980 and training at RAF Woodvale with the Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron.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 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, aged 29, an ultra-low level daylight mission on Ar Rumaylah Southwest Air Base, while acting as number two to Squadron Leader Paul "Pablo" Mason, his Panavia Tornado GR.1 of XV Squadron was hit at fifty feet by a shoulder-launched SAM SA-16, and he and his navigator were captured by the military of Iraq. 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 MBA from the University of Leicester Management Centre, with his dissertation being The Challenge of Change in the Royal Air Force.He became a Squadron Leader in 1997, moving to Turkey, and left the RAF after 18 years.