The Firefighters Podcast

#297 Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember with Liz McConaghy

April 22, 2024 Pete Wakefield Season 4 Episode 297
The Firefighters Podcast
#297 Highs and Lows of Forces Life from the Longest Serving Female RAF Chinook Force Crewmember with Liz McConaghy
Show Notes

Liz McConaghy was the longest serving female crewman on the Royal Air Force Chinook Fleet spanning a 17 year career flying on the aircraft. 

  Originally from a small town in Northern Ireland she attended RAF Cranwell on her 19th birthday to begin her exciting career thereafter on Chinook Helicopters.
She was the youngest aircrew to deploy to Iraq aged just 21 and also the only female crewman on the Chinook wing for 4 years, so her story is completely unique. 

Her career saw her amass 2 deployments to Iraq and 10 deployments to Helmand Afghanistan in support of Operation Herrick which gave her an insightful and very personal perspective on war. Upon leaving the RAF in 2019 Liz slowly became unravelled after a series of traumatic events that compounded her PTSD. This led to her trying to end her life in Aug 2020.

You can connect with Liz below
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