Richard Garwood

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Air Vice-Marshal Richard Frank Garwood, CBE DFC MA, is the Air Officer Commanding No. 22 (Training) Group, and also the Chief of Staff Training in his role as the lead for ‘through-life' training, in the Royal Air Force. He was born and raised in Heacham, near Hunstanton, West Norfolk. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1979, completing his officer and pilot training at the Royal Air Force College Cranwell. Garwood, known as Dick, was posted to II(AC) Squadron at RAF Laarbruch in West Germany during 1990. He was soon involved in build-up work for Operation 'Granby', the mobilisation of British forces to be sent to the Middle East after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. During Desert Storm he flew 19 night low-level reconnaissance sorties and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC).^[1] Garwood attended the Royal College of Defence Studies in 2003 before deploying to Qatar to become the first post-combat phase Air Component Commander for Op TELIC (Iraq). He returned to the UK in late 2003 to become Air Commodore Force Elements at HQ No. 1 Group. In 2004 he became the Director of Air Staff (DS) in the Ministry of Defence. During this tour he completed the Higher Command and Staff Course. In 2007 he was posted on temporary duty as the Chief of Defence Staff’s Liaison Officer to the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs. On return from Washington DC he was appointed as Air Officer Commanding 22 (Training) Group in the rank of Air Vice-Marshal.