Ex RAF Shawbury Stn Cdr joins RAFA HQ

16.12.06

RAFA HQ have recently announced that the new Membership and Operations Director will be the former RAF Shawbury Station Commander,  David Prowse, who will be joining the HQ in October.  

Born and educated in North London, he joined the RAF as a University Cadet in 1979.

After helicopter training at RAF Shawbury in 1984, his first tour was on Chinooks with 18(B) Squadron at RAF Gutersloh in (the then West) Germany.  He found himself back at RAF Shawbury in 1988 to become a Qualified Helicopter Instructor.  Following deployment on Operation Granby (first Gulf War) in 1990/1991, he returned to Chinooks, joining 7 Squadron at RAF Odiham in Hampshire.

After 4 years at RAF Odiham and another 6 months as Officer Commanding 78 Squadron in the Falkland Islands he began a series of operational staff tours at High Wycombe and with the Joint Helicopter Command that saw him serve in Bosnia, Kosovo and Sierra Leone.  

2001 saw him awarded an OBE for his support to Special Forces and he returned to Chinooks again, this time as Officer Commanding 18(B) Squadron, now at RAF Odiham.  During this tour he led the Squadron to support operations in Afghanistan in 2001/2002 whilst embarked on HMS ILLUSTRIOUS (following brief embarkations on FEARLESS/OCEAN for Ex SAIF SAREEA). In 2003 he deployed with 18(B) Squadron on Operation TELIC (Iraq), embarked initially on HMS ARK ROYAL, then based ashore in at Basra.  He was awarded the Queen’s Commendation for Valuable Service for his leadership in Iraq.

Two tours at MOD then followed, the first conducting an operational assessment of TELIC, and the second in public relations for the RAF.  In 2005/2006 he spent a year with the United States Air Force in Alabama where he gained a Masters Degree in Strategic Studies. He commanded RAF Shawbury from 2007 to 2009. From 2009 until 2010 he was Deputy Director STRATCOM for HQ ISAF in Kabul. He completed RCDS in 2010 and returned to MOD in the appointment of Assistant Head Operational Plans in the Media & Comms Directorate.  In 2012 he was promoted to Air Commodore and took up his current appointment of Head of Operational Communications also in the Media & Comms Directorate.

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