Ian Lowry’s 36-year Royal Air Force career included service in Northern Ireland, Iraq and Afghanistan, working in intelligence and rising to the rank of warrant officer.
Today, his dedication to the Armed Forces community continues through lasting friendships and his support for the Veterans' Lottery®.
Ian joined the RAF in March 1972, aged just 17.
Leaving Belfast during the Troubles, he followed his older brother into a career that would take him to conflicts around the world.
His service included deployments connected with the Gulf War, Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a return to Northern Ireland to work in intelligence.
Looking back on a career spanning more than three decades, Ian’s pride centres on the people who served alongside him.
“Being in the military, you join a team and it’s all about teamwork,” he said.
“We had some great results as a team during my career.”
In Afghanistan, that teamwork extended beyond his intelligence duties.
When helicopters arrived carrying wounded personnel, Ian and his colleagues would help medics carry them from the aircraft.
Those experiences helped shape his determination to support others whose lives had been affected by service.
Towards the end of his career, a young serviceman Ian had sent to Afghanistan was injured and brought home.
Visiting him in hospital brought home the responsibility he felt towards those serving under him.
Already approaching retirement, the experience helped bring forward his decision to leave.
Ian retired in August 2008, but his friendship with the injured serviceman continues, and they still meet at military functions.
Asked what he misses about the RAF, his answer is simple.
“I miss the people. I miss the comradeship,” he said.
That comradeship remains a powerful presence in his life.
When Ian recently needed help getting to hospital for an operation, he called two former military friends.
Both immediately offered to take him, despite the three-and-a-half-hour drive from his home in Norfolk.
His friend Tim Dutton took him to hospital and brought him home afterwards.
“And each one of them said, ‘When you want to go, I’ll take you,’” Ian recalled.
Ian and his wife regularly meet former service friends and their partners.
It was during one of those meals that he first heard about the Veterans' Lottery.
He joined the following day, recognising another way to support the military community through the work of the Veterans' Foundation®.
Now Ian is celebrating a £3,500 Veterans' Lottery® win, which he plans to put into his savings.
The prize is a welcome boost, but his support has always been motivated by helping fellow veterans.
Having witnessed the consequences of service, he hopes more people will join him in making a difference.
“I just wish we could get more civilians to support it as well,” he said.
For Ian, looking out for others remains as important today as it was during his 36 years in uniform.
