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 directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

of the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

(RAF).

Early life

He attended the independent

Churcher's College Churcher's College is an independent, fee-charging day school for girls and boys, founded in 1722. The Senior School (ages 11–18) is in the market town of Petersfield, Hampshire with the Junior School and Nursery (ages 2 years, 9 months–11) ...

in east

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...

, 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. On 1 Oct ...

(commonly known as UMIST, now part of the University of Manchester since 2004), gaining a

BSc A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University ...

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 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 as an all-weathe ...

with the

Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron Manchester and Salford Universities Air Squadron, abbreviated MASUAS, forms part of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. MASUAS is one of fifteen University Air Squadrons that are spread out across Great Britain and it recruits from the univ ...

. He later graduated with an

MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA; also Master's in Business Administration) is a postgraduate degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration such as accounti ...

from the

University of Leicester , mottoeng = So that they may have life , established = , type = public research university , endowment = £20.0 million , budget = £326 million , chancellor = David Willetts , vice_chancellor = Nishan Canagarajah , head_labe ...

Career

After his RAF training, he was based at

RAF Chivenor Royal Air Force Chivenor or RAF Chivenor was a Royal Air Force station located on the northern shore of the River Taw estuary, on the north coast of Devon, England. The nearest towns are Barnstaple and Braunton. Originally a civil airfield opene ...

RAF Lossiemouth Royal Air Force Lossiemouth or more commonly RAF Lossiemouth is a military airfield located on the western edge of the town of Lossiemouth in Moray, north-east Scotland. Lossiemouth is one of the largest and busiest fast-jet stations in the ...

and

RAF Laarbruch Royal Air Force , more commonly known as RAF ICAO EDUL (from 1 January 1995 ETUL) was a Royal Air Force station, a military airfield, located in Germany on its border with the Netherlands. The Station's motto was (). The site now operates a ...

. He became a staff pilot in 1987 at the Air Navigation School (ANS) of No. 6 Flying Training School at

RAF Finningley Royal Air Force Finningley or RAF Finningley was a Royal Flying Corps and Royal Air Force station at Finningley, in the Metropolitan Borough of Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. The station straddled the historic county boundaries of both ...

. In 1988, he moved to XV Squadron at

after converting to the Tornado GR1 as a

Flight Lieutenant Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the India ...

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 in the RAF ; SQNLDR in the RAAF and RNZAF; formerly sometimes S/L in all services) is a commissioned rank in the Royal Air Force and the air forces of many countries which have historical British influence. It is also ...

Paul "Pablo" Mason, his

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

br>''GR.1'
''of XV Squadron was hit at fifty feet by a shoulder-launched SAM

SA-14 The 9K34 Strela-3 (russian: 9К34 «Стрела-3», 'arrow', NATO reporting name: SA-14 Gremlin) is a man-portable air defense missile system ( MANPADS) developed in the Soviet Union as a response to the poor performance of the earlier 9K32 S ...

, and he and his navigator ( John Nichol) were captured by the

military of Iraq The Iraqi Armed Forces ( ar, القوات المسلحة العراقية romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallahah Al-Iraqiyyah'') (Kurdish: هێزە چەکدارەکانی عێراق) are the military forces of the Republic of Iraq. They consist of ...

. 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 Royal Air Force Brüggen, more commonly known as RAF Brüggen, in Germany was a major station of the Royal Air Force until 15 June 2001. It was situated next to the village of Elmpt, approximately west of Düsseldorf on the Dutch-German bo ...

, he moved to

RAF Cottesmore Royal Air Force Station Cottesmore or more simply RAF Cottesmore is a former Royal Air Force station in Rutland, England, situated between Cottesmore and Market Overton. On 15 December 2009, Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth announced that the ...

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 International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a Humanitarianism, humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million Volunteering, volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure re ...

, 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 founded in 1967 which focuses primarily on international business school accreditation and membership. Roles Based in London, AMBA is one of the three main global accreditation bodies in ...

. 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 First World War. Today, it is the armoured regiment of the British Army's 12th Armoured Infantry Brigade. Formerly known as th ...

. 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 academies of the United Kingdom and is the British Army's initial officer training centre. It is located in the town of ...

in 2014. The family live in

Worcestershire Worcestershire ( , ; written abbreviation: Worcs) is a county in the West Midlands of England. The area that is now Worcestershire was absorbed into the unified Kingdom of England in 927, at which time it was constituted as a county (see His ...

near

Bromsgrove Bromsgrove is a town in Worcestershire, England, about northeast of Worcester and southwest of Birmingham city centre. It had a population of 29,237 in 2001 (39,644 in the wider Bromsgrove/Catshill urban area). Bromsgrove is the main town in the ...

. 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 officers Royal Air Force personnel of the Gulf War Shot-down aviators Prisoners of war held by Iraq