Biography

Andy Johnson. Andy served in the RAF from 1981 as a fighter controller, spending ten years serving in air defence radar stations.  In 1992, he moved to RAF Waddington and spent the next seventeen years flying on the AWACS as crewmember and mission crew commander.  During his flying service, Andy flew extensively in air operations over Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and worked with the armed forces of many nations, particularly the USA, Australia and India.  He has an insider's view of the air environment and the application of air power on the battlefield.  Andy has a lifetime interest in military aviation and the campaigns of the British and Commonwealth Armies, particularly in the Second World War, has visited battlefields in Sicily, Italy, Normandy and Northwest Europe and has led Staff Rides and battlefield tours looking at the Battle of Britain and visiting the Western Front and Normandy.  As a complete contrast, Andy travelled to India on numerous occasions and developed an interest in the Honourable East India Company and its campaigns, particularly the Indian Mutiny of 1857-59.  During independent travels, he explored sites at Delhi, Lucknow, Kanpur, Gwalior, Jhansi and other locations, many well off the beaten track. He retired from the RAF in 2009 to pursue a second career in battlefield guiding and military and aviation research.  He is a volunteer guide at RAF Waddington Heritage Centre, escorting general interest and ancestral groups, and at RAF Digby Operations Room Museum, where a fighter control background is of particular use.  He also guides a Lincolnshire-based aviation-themed tour and has guided for Remembrance Travel. He joined the Guild of Battlefield Guides in 2008 and gained Badge No 52 in November 2011. Andy can be contacted atandyjohnson26@hotmail.co.uk