Nigel Ward

Commander Nigel "Sharkey" Ward is a former Royal Navy officer and Fleet Air Arm fighter pilot who commanded 801 Naval Air Squadron during the 1982 Falklands War.
Early career in the Royal Navy
Ward was born in Canada in 1943. In 1962 he joined Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth as an officer cadet. After basic flying training he completed his training with the Fleet Air Arm on the Hawker Hunter and Sea Vixen. He then joined 892 Naval Air Squadron flying the FGR.2 Phantom from , where he became an air warfare instructor. He then worked as a nuclear planning officer at NATO AFNORTH. In 1979, he took command of the Sea Harrier FRS.1 Intensive Flying Trials Unit at 700 Naval Air Squadron. Ward featured in an episode of Pebble Mill at One that year, landing a Sea Harrier in a sports field next to the Pebble Mill Studios.
Falklands war
As commanding officer of 801 Squadron, Ward had to prepare the Sea Harrier for action in the South Atlantic. Aircraft and pilots were borrowed from the conversion unit, 899 Naval Air Squadron, and with a strength of eight aircraft they embarked in HMS Invincible on 4 April 1982. The three Dagger pilots, Major Piuma, Captain Donaldille and Lieutenant Senn, ejected safely.
;1 June 1982
Ward, in Sea Harrier XZ451, and another aircraft were just returning to Invincible after a combat air patrol when they were sent to check a target seen on radar 20 miles north of the ship. They found a four-engined Lockheed C-130 Hercules at 200 feet above the sea. Ward's first AIM-9L Sidewinder missile fell short of the C-130, but the second started a fire between the inner and outer port engines. Ward then fired 240 rounds from his Harrier's two ADEN cannons and this action broke off the wing of the enemy aircraft, sending it crashing into the sea and killing the seven crew members.
On 2011, while residing in Grenada, he had a friendly but emotional radio interview with Ezequiel Martel, son of the C-130 Hercules pilot shot down by Ward during the conflict.
Honours and awards
*12 June 1982 - Air Force Cross in the .
*8 October 1982 - Distinguished Service Cross for gallant and distinguished service in the South Atlantic:
Works
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See Also

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