PEEBLES

Tuesday 13^th December 2011

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John Gilbert was born in 1949 and joined the RAF in 1969 having spent two years in industry working for Dunlop, training to be an accountant.
After completing his officer training and graduating from flying training, he was posted to the V-Force and flew the Vulcan B Mk2 strategic bomber for 9 years.  He was a member of No 44 (Rhodesia) squadron and was an instructor on No 230 Operational Conversion Unit.   

Following his completion of the post-graduate General Duties Aerosystems Course in 1979 he was posted to the Aircraft and Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in Wiltshire as the Searchwater Radar Trials officer.  Here he was responsible for the weapons systems performance trials of the radar and also carried out other tasks in support of the Falklands Conflict.   At the end of his tour he was detached to VX-1 at the United States Naval Base at Patuxent River as a trials advisor.
In 1983 he was posted to the RAF Air Navigation School at RAF Finningley as the Officer Commanding the Navigation Specialist, Simulator and Standards Squadron.
In 1987 he became the Squadron Leader Electronic Warfare (EW) Training in the Department of Air Warfare at the RAF College.   During his time in this post he was responsible for the management and organization of, and lectured to, all the RAF EW courses.  He also gave briefings and ran courses, up to 8 weeks in duration, in Malaysia, Singapore, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt.   
He took over the post as the Officer Commanding Operations at the Electronic Warfare
Tactics Range at RAF Spadeadam in Cumbria in 1989.   He remained in this post for 10 years and was responsible for the safe operation of aircraft in Low Flying Area 13, which straddles the border between Scotland and England; he was also deputy Station Commander for this period.    In addition to his primary duties he was also the Station Conservation Officer of the largest RAF station in the UK (only in area!) and during his last year, Spadeadam was the first RAF station to be awarded the "Silver Otter" for the best MoD conservation programme. 
During his time he was responsible for the IiP accreditation of the unit and became an IiP Panel Member for Cumbria. 

In 2000 he was seconded to Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA) as the Test and Evaluation Ranges Electronic Warfare Technical Leader based at RAF Boscombe Down. He
retired from the RAF in February 2001 to become the RAF Community Relations Officer for Scotland.