The climax of the story was when the POW’s were told that they were to be freed and that their horrendous ordeal was over. Because the reader has been engrossed in the story, they now feel that they are there, well I did anyway! And as such the reader feels the POW’s joy and jubilation as well. The story ended when the families had been reunited at RAF Laarbruch in Germany, and the story concludes at the funeral for all of the fallen squadron member’s. It ends with some poignant words by John Peters read from the ‘Lesson of Thanksgiving’, and here is the final, most stirring moment in the whole book:
‘ I moved to the lectern, to read the Lesson of Thanksgiving, from Philippians, Chapter four, verses 4-9:
“Finally brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. What you have learned and received and heard and seen in me do; and the God of peace be with you. Amen”
A Royal Marines bugle sounded the ‘Last Post’. As its call faded away, the cathedral was filled with the skirl of bagpipes, as a piper came in playing a lament for the dead.’
These words made me feel sad, I’m not usually one to be moved by a story, but the way this story was written made me really feel part of the squadron, I felt like I was there in those prisons, at the beatings and with them when they were released, so at the end I felt like I was losing a part of myself, my new found friends from the squadron who are now dead. It really brings it all home.
The main characters in the story, as you have probably guessed by now are John Nichol and John Peters, these two became good friends as they were partnered up to fly together, the already had a strong friendship, but being through something horrific together made them like brothers. John Peters was tall, dark haired, good-looking, a real ladies man. He grew up wanting to be a pilot in the Air Force, he loved flying, and he loved his wife and children, he was a sociable man with many friends. He strived to be the best, not be beaten, he wanted to be a perfectionist but he could not always achieve this. John Nichol, on the other hand, is a shorter larger built man; he has flaxen hair and is very self-critical. I think he will become a better person because of his self-criticism, it will make him see his mistakes and he can correct them, or at least try. He doesn’t have a wife or children; he is more of a career-orientated man. His closest family are his parents.
They weren’t described in much detail at the beginning of the story; they were merely introduced and given a brief description. The reader learns more about them as the story progresses, you find out who they are, what they are like, their relationships, their friends, you also learn about their innermost thoughts and feelings when they are in prison. They can only think of what might happen to them. An example of this is when John Nichol is in his third cell after being moved from one prison to another. He looks around his new surroundings, ‘a dark, smelly, brown plastered cell with cracks running up the walls and across the ceilings’, when he spots some graffiti on the wall beside him, he counts ‘750 ticks, to mark the passage of his days in captivity. They were in blocks of five and divisions of 100. I wondered how that prisoner had stood it in that dark hole, and what had happened to him in the end. I thought I would not last as long, and prayed I would not have to.’ Nichol obviously feels compassion for this man. I think he feels a kind of bond with this man, whether he be dead or alive, because of their similar situation. This is also where the reader learns how John Nichol is a caring person, how he feels for others suffering forsaking his own thoughts and concerns about himself.
I find both Nichol and Peters interesting people. They both have jobs that I would love, and as such I feel a link to them. Both of them wanted to be pilots their whole lives, and so do I. I would do anything to have a job like theirs, it is my dream and it was theirs as well, so I can understand how they feel about their jobs. What I can’t understand, and probably will never have to, is how they felt inside those prisons, their thoughts while being hit in the face with planks of wood and being whipped with hosepipes, they can describe their thoughts in as much detail as possible, but the only people who would fully understand would be people who have suffered in a similar way.
There were many different kinds of relationships between all of the characters in the story. A few examples are John Peters and his wife, Helen, have a very stable and loving relationship. They also have two children, Guy, 2, and Toni, born at the beginning of the story, John Peters obviously cares a lot for his children because while in prison in Iraq, his family was all he usually thought about, and when his son Guy had his second birthday, he forgot to buy him a present leaving it all up to Helen. When in prison thinking he might die, he kept feeling guilty about not having spent more time with his family, and he especially regretted not buying his son a birthday present. He kept thinking that if he was kept in prison for a long time his son might forget who his daddy was. This upset Peters a lot; he regretted many things while in prison and swore to himself, that he would try to make it all right. This shows how Peters was a loving man, he had forgotten his sons birthday present, but he was going to make it up to him, and he was going to spend a lot more time with his family, one member of which he hardly knew.
There are also many other relationships happening throughout the story. All the members of XV Squadron are like a family, a great big network of people who make everything, wherever they are work together. They are all such good friends and as such they trust each other enormously. All the pilots and navigators know each other well and are all good friends, there are also special relationships going on within XV Squadron, such as the long-lasting friendship between Peters and Nichol, and certain bonds between a pilot and his navigator. All of these relationships are crucial within a force like XV Squadron, there needs to be a lot of trust between everyone.
Other relationships in the story aren’t as loving and friendly; they are the hate relationships between Iraqi soldiers and allied soldiers. The Iraqi soldiers hated the captured POW’s because they were the people who were bombing their air fields and radio towers and destroying their bunkers and bases, they had killed their friends and allies and they weren’t going to let them get away with it. The allied pilots, navigators and soldiers also hated the Iraqi soldiers in return. They hated them because they were deliberately beating them, for doing their jobs. It was their orders to bomb these places. They didn’t have any grudges against Iraq or the Iraqi’s; they were just doing what they were told to do whether they wanted to or not. So the allied soldiers hated the Iraqi interrogators for beating them up in such a brutal fashion as they did.
There were also relationships formed under the strangest of circumstances, for instance, one Iraqi, who obviously felt sorry for the allied soldiers, helped them out when their need was greatest. John Peters had been handcuffed to a bed and had had no food for days. When the Iraqi ‘Samaritan’ saw what a state his fellow countrymen had put Peters in, he was appalled. So he set about loosening his cuffs removing the blindfold and giving him some hot lentil soup and bread. Peters was extremely grateful for this refuge and formed a short friendship with this man, in time Nichol was to meet this man and form a friendship with him. They both ‘christened’ this man Ahmed.
The characters changed very little throughout the story, considering what they were going through at the time. After they had been returned home, everyone would ask them if their experiences had changed them in any way. The answer on the whole was probably yes, although not in the way, or other people, had quite expected. People thought that when they came home their basic characters would be changed, that they might for example be ‘broken’. But it was not like that, not as banal as that; it was more that they viewed life from a slightly different angle. For instance, John Peters, while in prison, had decided that he would try to change things that were wrong in his life; he would spend more time with his family, be a more caring person. John Nichol also changed the way he thought about things and dealt with things. In the last chapter of the book he explains how he would let an argument go, rather than worry it to death, as he would have had before. He also explained how he had become more impatient, less ready to accept delay. All of these changes are a result of his ordeal in the Gulf. Maybe, they are changes for the better.
The story is written from the first person perspective. It has been written by John Peters, John Nichol and Helen Peters. Each of them has written their part of the story from their own view. They have written an unbiased account of their thoughts and feelings, Peters and Nichol have written it from their experiences in prison, while Helen has written it from her viewpoint, describing her thoughts and feelings throughout the ordeal. The way they have written it is very important to the story. It conveys three different viewpoints of the war and the training, the Air Force and most importantly the imprisonment. Having three people describe their innermost thoughts and feelings really brings it all home, how it could have ended, how terrible it could have been.
The settings were described in great detail. Such as when Peters and Nichol are on Hi-Lo-Hi bombing training. They describe how the grey North Sea gives way to Britain, like a map laid out before you, and as you dive through the murk of the dark clouds the ground rushes up to meet you at an alarming rate. This is just one such example of the descriptive nature of the book. They also describe the cockpit of the Tornado GR3 in much detail, as well as describing the bombing runs; they describe the bombs and how they work, how they dig into the ground before detonating. Also described in a lot of detail were their prison settings and the way they were treated while in those prisons.
One of the biggest things incorporated into the story is emphasis on everybody's thoughts, feelings, attitudes and emotions. John, John and Helen describe the way they felt in much detail. Their innermost feelings were detailed throughout the nightmare ordeal.
This story was very very good; this is mainly because it is about something that I myself am interested in. I love planes and flying and so the first thing that attracted me to it was the title. I had an idea of what the story may entail, the clue is in the title and the blurb on the reverse of the cover. Initially I didn’t think that the book would interest me after I had read the beginning, but after the beginning it became more interesting to me. I don’t know why, I am not sadistic or anything! I don’t like to read about people being tortured. I think it was more the fact that I wanted to know how it all ended, whether they would make it out alive or not. I knew they would, otherwise the book would have been written by someone else in third person perspective, I was just intrigued by how they felt and how they would overcome it psychologically, and in the end it all worked out well. My favourite moment in the story is when the POW’s, including Peters and Nichol, have been released from prison, and when they find out who survived and who didn’t. It is a moment of elation after such an unspeakable ordeal. It is quite a stirring moment in the story. Because you feel you have been there with them, as I said earlier, you feel their excitation and jubilation, all their worries and fears have been lifted and you feel really good for them. They have beaten their captors and have remained mentally and psychologically healthy, despite the seamlessly endless beatings and interrogation.
There are no improvements as such that I would make to the story. To change anything would be obtuse, and because it is a true story the story line can’t really be changed.
The reason for the Peters and Nichol to write this story is to inform. They wanted the public to know what it was like for them during that terrible time. While reading the story I felt a lot of compassion for Peters and Nichol, I felt sympathetic and sorry for them. It must have been such a harrowing experience for them, and to come out on the other side relatively unscathed and intact.
I learned many things from the story about people and different cultures. The way they were treated in Iraq seemed unethical to me and probably would to most people in the Western World, but to a majority of people in places like Iraq the type of interrogation, torture and imprisonment that our allied soldiers were subject to, would probably seem acceptable, even though treaties like the Geneva Convention prevent such cruelty.
When I juxtapose this book with others that I have read recently I can see that it captured my imagination in a way that no other has. It really made me think about lots of things, things in my own life, things in others lives, and how terrible ordeals can affect your way of life. The book did all of these things to me because it was really very good; it made me think, seriously, which not many books could do.
I would definitely recommend this book to anyone. It is a book that can make you look at life retrospectively, as Peters and Nichol have done. It will make you think, it will make you look at your life from another perspective, and may change you psychologically. Certainly a must-read book for anyone interested in the Gulf conflict. Or if you just fancy a good book to read then ‘Tornado Down’ is definitely my recommendation for you.