First Gulf War: Life As A Tornado Navigator

The Tornado was used by the RAF for combat missions for the first time during the First Gulf War.
Thirty years on, we spoke to two Tornado navigators who shared their memories of the war and what it meant to play a role in the air campaign against Saddam Hussein's forces.
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[@nevek20]

The Tornado was a seriously beautiful jet, looked mean as hell too.

[@bruggenbill25]

Nice to see the groundcrew getting some coverage, towing a jet out of the shed. Brings back some good memories of when I was on 14 SQN during the 1st Gulf war.

[@acoustic5738]

On a serious note now, The GW1 Tornado missions are a historical aviation beacon and the sad thing is we know so little about them, specially about Jp233 attacks. The complexity of these missions is a testament of how amazingly well trained these guys were. I am so happy to see them leave their testaments here. Thanks!!!

[@Dragon-Slay3r]

🙃

[@pete8938]

Mal was my syndicate tutor on IOT. Lovely guy, very knowledgeable and incredibly humble - he never mentioned this story in the 6 months I knew him. Wishing you all the best if he reads this Mal and thank you.

[@paul1978g]

I miss these thunderous beasts now they're not on the show circuit. I vividly recall getting a Monogram 1:48 scale model kit with posable swept wings of the GR1 as a kid, it's been a firm favourite ever since.

[@richardfryer1279]

Thank you lads.

[@FrankC321]

Thank you for sharing your experiences in the Gulf.

[@BMoved4Life-ir7ku]

My brother in law was in training at Finningley when he was killed in 1989 in a motorbike accident. Would love to know if any of these guys knew him

[@acoustic5738]

The mullet from the thumbnail majestic AF. Now ill watch the video.

[@underwaterdick]

It must have been a great time to join the military if you were not expecting to go to war. The one good thing about the cold war was how unlikely it was to become "hot" for Soldiers or Airmen. When you read books from this time, it was very different to what signing up was post Gulf War and subsequent conflicts. Although these guys had balls to experience tornado after tornado being destroyed yet still having to get up and do their thing. The bravery required to continue fighting day after day in conflict for any serviceman is astounding.

[@MichaelKng-fk5jk]

strange the difference from UK and Germany based units. UK based Squadrons were running attack runs, at night, blacked out on the refineries at Immingham relentlessly. Then went silent. Couple of days later the news lit up with the commencement of the campaign. Strikes a question if UK based Squadrons were working blacked out, super low level, between the towers, why were Germany based Squadrons so unprepared and; why would they ever consider operations lit up?

[@jetset7772]

What do nav s do after the raf?

[@brecklander]

To quote from John Nichol's book.... "what do you say to an ex Tornado nav?.......... a Big Mac and large fries please".

[@jetset7772]

Well i think cream floats to the top brecklander. How many hours fast jet do you have exactly and why are you so familiar with a mcdonalds order ?

[@brecklander]

@@jetset7772 I think you have got the wrong end of the stick there. I was just quoting what John Nichol wrote in a self deprecating way in his (joint with John Peters) book "Tornado Down". FYI I did serve with John Nicol on Tornado, including during GW1 and contributed in a very small way to his latest, and brilliant book "Tornado- In the eye of the storm" which I thoroughly recommend.

[@jetset7772]

@@brecklander thanks for reply . I served too at Dhahran . I don’t like fellow aviators criticism of the two johns for their half a mission. They represented our country in a time of war. I realise that’s not what you were doing now also read both books