Adrian John Nichol (born December 1963) is a retired

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) an ...

navigator A navigator is the person on board a ship or aircraft responsible for its navigation.Grierson, MikeAviation History—Demise of the Flight Navigator FrancoFlyers.org website, October 14, 2008. Retrieved August 31, 2014. The navigator's primar ...

who was shot down and captured during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

Early life

Adrian John Nichol was born in

North Shields North Shields () is a town in the Borough of North Tyneside in Tyne and Wear, England. It is north-east of Newcastle upon Tyne and borders nearby Wallsend and Tynemouth. Since 1974, it has been in the North Tyneside borough of Tyne and Wea ...

, and attended the

St Cuthbert's Grammar School ST, St, or St. may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Stanza, in poetry * Suicidal Tendencies, an American heavy metal/hardcore punk band * Star Trek, a science-fiction media franchise * Summa Theologica, a compendium of Catholic philosophy an ...

on Gretna Road in

Newcastle upon Tyne Newcastle upon Tyne ( RP: , ), or simply Newcastle, is a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. The city is located on the River Tyne's northern bank and forms the largest part of the Tyneside built-up area. Newcastle is ...

. He joined the

(RAF) in February 1981 as an electronics technician; having signed up in 1980 and needing sufficient

O level The O-Level (Ordinary Level) is a subject-based qualification conferred as part of the General Certificate of Education. It was introduced in place of the School Certificate in 1951 as part of an educational reform alongside the more in-depth ...

s. In the intervening period between school and the RAF, he worked in a large DIY store, although his employers were not aware of his military plans until they sought to promote him to management and he decided to tell them.

RAF career

Nichol was commissioned as a

in December 1986. He served with XV Squadron based at

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 ...

, Germany. During

Operation Granby Operation Granby, commonly abbreviated Op Granby, was the code name given to the British military operations during the 1991 Gulf War. 53,462 members of the British Armed Forces were deployed during the conflict. The total cost of operations wa ...

in the

, the squadron was deployed to

Muharraq Airfield Muharraq Airfield is a military base located adjacent to Bahrain International Airport. It is run by the United States Navy (USN) and usually ships supplies in and out of the airport with many of them from other countries as well. The USN, the Uni ...

Bahrain Bahrain ( ; ; ar, البحرين, al-Bahrayn, locally ), officially the Kingdom of Bahrain, ' is an island country in Western Asia. It is situated on the Persian Gulf, and comprises a small archipelago made up of 50 natural islands and an ...

. Nichol's first mission, on 17 January 1991, entailed flying as number two to Squadron Leader Paul "Pablo" Mason on an ultra-low-level sortie against Ar Ruma airfield. During the flight, his Panavia Tornado GR1 ''ZD791'' was critically damaged by a shoulder-launched

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 ...

surface-to-air missile A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...

, and Nichol and his pilot, John Peters, were captured by Iraqi forces. After capture Nichol was shown, bruised, on Iraqi television. He was tortured in the

Abu Ghraib prison Abu Ghraib prison ( ar, سجن أبو غريب, ''Sijn Abū Ghurayb'') was a prison complex in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, located west of Baghdad. Abu Ghraib prison was opened in the 1950s and served as a maximum-security prison with torture, weekly exe ...

. Nichol was released by the Iraqis at the end of the Gulf War. Nichol remained in the RAF until March 1996. After 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 ...

, Nichol co-authored a book, '' Tornado Down'', with John Peters, about this experience.

Author and broadcaster

Since 'Tornado Down', Nichol has written over ten books including five novels: ''Point of Impact'', ''Vanishing Point'', ''Exclusion Zone'', ''Stinger'' and ''Decisive Measures''. His latest books provide extensive eyewitness accounts of

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

history and include ''The Last Escape'', which tells the harrowing story of Allied

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

in the closing stages of the war; ''Tail-End Charlies'', which gives an insight into the final battles of the Allied bomber campaign in the Second World War; and ''Home Run'' which recounts the experiences of escaped Allied prisoners of war evading capture in Europe behind enemy lines. ''Medic: Saving Lives – from Dunkirk to Afghanistan'' (2009) was short-listed for the 2010 Wellcome Trust Book Prize. Nichol now makes occasional appearances on British television as a presenter and sometimes works in radio as a stand-in presenter on talkSport. He also works as a motivational speaker.

Personal life

Nichol lives in

Hertfordshire Hertfordshire ( or ; often abbreviated Herts) is one of the home counties in southern England. It borders Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire to the north, Essex to the east, Greater London to the south, and Buckinghamshire to the west. For govern ...

. His daughter was born in 2005. His parents live in

References

External links

John Nichol's Web Site

*

Interview with Historvius.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nichol, John 1963 births Living people British navigators British prisoners of war English writers Flight navigators Gulf War prisoners of war People from North Shields Royal Air Force officers Royal Air Force personnel of the Gulf War Shot-down aviators Prisoners of war held by Iraq 20th-century English male writers