John Thomson (officer)

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Sir Charles John Thomson GCB CBE AFC (* 7. June 1941 , † 10. July 1994 on the military airfield RAF Halton, Halton , Buckinghamshire ) was a British air force officer in the Royal Air Force , who most recently as General ( Air Chief Marshal ) 1994 For a short time until his death, he was AFNORTHWEST ( Allied Forces Northwestern Europe ) as First Commander in Chief of the Allied Forces of NATO in northwestern Europe .

Life

Pilot training and uses as an Air Force officer

Thomson grew up in Northern Ireland and attended Campbell College in Belfast , founded in 1894 . He then began his aviation training in September 1959 as a flight cadet of the A-Squadron at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell , the officers' school of the RAF. Upon completion of his training, he was awarded the Robert Marsland Groves Memorial Prize , the Dickson Trophy and the Michael Hill Memorial Prize . He was then accepted on July 31, 1962 as a professional soldier ( Permanent Commission ) in the RAF and promoted to Lieutenant ( Pilot Officer ). His first assignment he was as pilot of Hawker Hunter - fighters in the No. 43 Squadron RAF , which was part of the armed forces in Aden ( British Forces Aden ). There he took part in missions in the region around the Persian Gulf and between January and May 1964 in the Radfan region in Yemen . During this time he was promoted to Oberleutnant ( Flying Officer ) on July 31, 1963 , this promotion being dated back to July 31, 1962.

Thomson then became a pilot in 1964 for the Air Force in the Federal Republic of Germany ( RAF Germany ) No. 2 Squadron RAF at the RAF Gütersloh military airfield , where he now carried out reconnaissance flights. There he received his promotion to captain ( flight lieutenant ) on January 31, 1965 and on March 2, 1966 was aide-de-camp of the commander-in-chief of RAF Germany, Air Marshal Denis Spotswood .

Uses as a staff officer

Between 1967 and 1973 Thomson took part in a multi-year exchange program with the US Air Force , during which time he served with the 67th Tactical Reconnaissance Wing USAF at Bergstrom Air Force Base in Texas . There he was promoted to Major ( Squadron Leader ) on July 1, 1970 . On his return to Britain he completed in 1973, the RAF Staff College Bracknell and was after the end of 1973 Head of the project group for the SEPECAT Jaguar - fighter-bomber at the headquarters of the air attack commands ( RAF Strike Command ). After his promotion to Lieutenant Colonel ( Wing Commander ) on July 1, 1975, he stayed at the headquarters of the RAF Strike Command and took over there on July 25, 1975 the function of an air force planning officer.

On July 14, 1976, Thomson assumed his first command post, as commander of No. 41 Squadron RAF at the RAF Coltishall air force base , where the SEPECAT Jaguar fighter-bombers were used in the RAF. He benefited from his flying knowledge of combat and reconnaissance aircraft for the role in the airspace over Norway . During this time he also launched the first operational flight of SEPECAT Jaguar -Jagdbombern over the Atlantic Ocean on the occasion of participation in the NATO - Military Exercise Red Flag 1978 . He was then on March 12, 1979 Personal Staff Officer to the Chief of the Air Staff , Air Chief Marshal Michael Beetham . During this time he was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) on June 16, 1979 and promoted to Colonel ( Group Captain ) on July 1, 1980 . Subsequently, on December 11, 1981, he became the commander of the RAF Brüggen air force base belonging to RAF Germany .

Thomson attended a course at the Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) in London from January 10, 1984 and was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) during this time . He was then promoted to Air Commodore on January 1, 1985 and took over the post of director of the new department for defense concepts in the Air Force Staff.

Promotion to Air Chief Marshal

After his promotion to Major General ( Air Vice Marshal ) on January 1, 1987 Thomson succeeded Air Vice Marshal Michael Simmons as AOC ( Air Officer Commanding ) in command of No. 1 Group RAF and held this post until his replacement by Sandy Wilson on February 24, 1989. In this role, he was in command of all tankers , transport helicopters and support helicopters stationed in Great Britain . Thereupon he was on March 14, 1989 Vice Chief of the Air Force Staff ( Assistant Chief of the Air Staff ) and followed in this role again Air Vice Marshal Michael Simmons. In this role he dealt with arms control issues as well as the restructuring of the RAF planned for the mid-1990s. He remained in this use until his replacement by Air Vice Marshal Timothy Garden on March 15, 1991.

Then in 1991 Thomson became Commanding General AOC-in-C ( Air Officer Commanding in Chief ) of the Air Force Support Command ( RAF Support Command ) and thus successor to Air Marshal Michael Graydon . In this service he was promoted to Lieutenant General ( Air Marshal ) himself on May 8, 1991 and was also knighted to Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on June 15, 1991 , so that from then on he carried the suffix "Sir". On October 5, 1992, Air Marshal John Willis replaced him as commanding general of the RAF Support Command.

This was followed on November 4, 1992, the promotion of Thomson to General ( Air Chief Marshal ). At the same time he succeeded Air Chief Marshal Michael Graydon on November 4, 1992 as Commanding General of the Air Strike Command ( RAF Strike Command ). He held this post until his replacement by Air Chief Marshal Richard Johns on June 30, 1994. In the meantime, he was raised to the Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) on June 11, 1994 .

On July 1, 1994 he became the first Commander in Chief of the newly created command of the Allied Forces in Northwest Europe AFNORTHWEST ( Allied Forces Northwestern Europe ) with headquarters in High Wycombe . However, a few days after taking office, he fell seriously ill and died on July 10, 1994 in the military hospital of the RAF Halton Air Force Base. His successor as Commander in Chief of AFNORTHWEST was then again Air Chief Marshal Richard Johns.

His marriage to Jan Bishop in 1972 resulted in three daughters, one of whom died as a toddler in 1977 at the age of three.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ London Gazette  (Supplement). No. 47869, HMSO, London, June 15, 1979, p. 15 ( PDF , accessed March 7, 2016, English).
  2. ^ Officers Commanding RAF Bruggen on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
  3. ↑ No. 1 Group RAF on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
  4. ^ Assistant Chief of the Air Staff on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
  5. ^ RAF Support Command on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
  6. ^ RAF Strike Command on Air of Authority - A History of RAF Organization
personal data
SURNAME Thomson, John
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Thomson, Sir Charles John (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British Air Force officer in the United Kingdom
DATE OF BIRTH June 7, 1941
DATE OF DEATH July 10, 1994
Place of death RAF Halton Military Airfield, Halton , Buckinghamshire