Gallantry medal for RAF bomb disposal expert

ONE of the RAF’s top bomb disposal experts has been awarded the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for his bravery in defusing deadly Taleban devices in Afghanistan.

Chief technician Dave Lowe, 38, below, was the first member of British forces outside the Army’s Royal Logistic Corps to pass the gruelling “high-threat” improvised explosive device (IED) disposal course.

He was by some way the busiest bomb clearance specialist during his six-month tour of Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province alongside 3rd Battalion the Parachute Regiment and saved many lives doing his highly dangerous job.

In one 10-day period he attended nine incidents and personally made safe 15 low-metal pressure-plate IEDs by hand, five of them in a single day.

On another occasion, he painstakingly defused three IEDs of a design that had never been seen before in Helmand, so other bomb disposal teams could learn from them.

Chief Technician Lowe, originally from Carlisle, is based at RAF Wittering, with the RAF’s 5131 (Bomb Disposal) Squadron.

He said: “It’s a great honour and I’d like to thank my team and superiors – they deserve this more than I do.”