Remembering
Iraq | | Missile
strike survivor - Robbie Stewart today |
In 1990 the 成人快手's Lincolnshire
reporter, Tony Roe, filmed with an RAF navigator in the run up to the first Gulf
War. Flight Lieutenant Robbie Stewart had visited a primary school at Scampton
because the children had written to his Squadron while they were on training missions
in Saudi Arabia. Most daily news stories would have ended there. But
two days into the Gulf War Robbie was shot down. It was some time before
anyone knew whether Robbie was alive or dead. Missile strikeRobbie
had been on a low flying bombing mission over Iraq with his pilot Dave Waddington.
Fifteen
years after... | 1991: End of Gulf War. Iraq
accepts a ceasefire but the departing army sets alight Kuwait's oil fields. 1993:
US cruise missile attack on Iraq Intelligence HQ. 1994-95: Sanctions imposed. 1996:
Iraq pushes tanks into Kurdish cities. 1997: Weapons inspectors row. 1998:-
Operation desert fox. March 2003: Iraq war starts.
|
When
the missile struck their aircraft, Robbie managed to press the eject button with
half a second to spare. The plane left a huge crater in the desert. Robbie
suffered bad leg injuries and was captured. News of his capture was picked
up by the 成人快手's monitoring unit at Caversham. The two people who'd handed
him in to the Iraqi authorities had been praised in an Iraqi radio broadcast. Survival
instinctsIt was only while under interrogation in the now notorious Abu
Ghraib prison that Robbie found out his pilot had survived too.
They were
in the same jail.  | | Prisoner
of war Robbie Stewart in 1991 |
The treatment they suffered
there was brutal. Robbie was struck with a pistol on the head and had a
knife whipped around his face. At one point he had to run back to the safe
haven of his cell with a wounded leg to escape a beating. Then when one
of Saddam Hussein's bunkers was bombed near the prison, he was dragged outside,
shown the damage, and told he was going to be shot. The day after the bombing,
the land war started. Ten days later the conflict was over. Back home in
Lincolnshire it was only clear Robbie and Dave had survived and were alive when
pictures of them in yellow P.O.W. suits emerged. Road to recoveryThe
same 成人快手 crew who had filmed Robbie before he went to war went on to tell the
story of his imprisonment and spent six months following his road to recovery.
Robbie was determined to fly again and built up his strength while training
navigators at RAF Cottesmore in Rutland. Then the day came when Robbie
flew again聟 and in a special moment Robbie returned to his old base at RAF
Marham to team up with Dave Waddington to fly together again.  | | Last flight - Robbie takes to the skies once
again | |
In
the years that followed, the reporter, now working for Inside Out, and the Navigator
kept in touch. So on his 60th birthday, when Robbie retired from the Air
Force after 41 years, he invited the 成人快手 along to witness his final celebration
flight. Robbie was to fly one last time with Dave Waddington, now a Wing
Commander at Marham. Not only that but his daughter, Kirsty, is now a Tornado
pilot. She and her husband, Nick Moore, were to fly on the same mission
with friends and family on the ground watching. The day didn't go according
to plan; Kirsty's jet couldn't take off because of an engine problem. But
it was still a special time for Robbie who said: "It was
a fantastic day from the moment I drove in through the gates until the moment
I closed my eyes that night".
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this story:The 成人快手 is not responsible for the content
of external websites | 
听听Inside
Out - East Midlands: Monday October 30, 2006
