Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Lester Torpy, is a retired senior Royal Air Force (RAF) commander. He was a fast jet pilot in the late 1970s and 1980s, saw active service during the Gulf War and then went on to higher command. He was the air component commander on Operation Telic and served as Chief of the Air Staff, the professional head of the RAF, from 2006 to 2009. In that role Torpy hosted the RAF's biggest air display in two decades, and argued for consolidation of all British air power in the hands of the RAF.
Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy in September 2007
Tornado, a type flown by Torpy in the 1980s
British involvement in the Iraq War
Operation Telic was the codename under which all of the United Kingdom's military operations in Iraq were conducted between the start of the invasion of Iraq on 19 March 2003 and the withdrawal of the last remaining British forces on 22 May 2011. The bulk of the mission ended on 30 April 2009 but around 150 troops, mainly from the Royal Navy, remained in Iraq until 22 May 2011 as part of the Iraqi Training and Advisory Mission. 46,000 troops were deployed at the onset of the invasion and the total cost of war stood at £9.24 billion in 2010.
Operation Telic Campaign Medal for Service in Iraq. The medal is made of cupro-nickel and bears on the obverse the crowned image of the Queen. The reverse shows an ancient Assyrian Lamassu sculpture above the word Iraq. The 1.5 inches (38 mm) wide ribbon is a sand colour with three central stripes of black, white and red, the three main colours of the Iraqi flag (minus the green of the Takbīr).