EYES OF THE STORM
FLIGHT LIEUTENANT ROBBIE STEWART, 1991
by KEITH MADDISON. B.19S1
Ceramic, bronze and poly&ter resin
Flt Lt Stewart served as a navigator on Tornado GRls with No.27 Squadron. His aircraft was shot down and he and his pilor were taken prisoner in Iraq during the Gulf Conflict of 1990-1991.
Keith Maddison spent the first twelve years of his career as an art teacher on Tyneside. During this time he developed his own work but it was not until 1986 that he decided to concentrate full-time on ceramic sculpture. He exhibited his first collection of aviation figures in 1989 at the National Aerospace Museum in Amsterdam. In 1990 he contributed seven sculptures of Battle of Britain personnel to the 'Faces of the Few' exhibition held at the RAF Museum. He was elected an Associate Member of the Guild of Aviation Artists in 1992.
Each sculpture produced is unique and fashioned by hand. No moulds or casting techniques are used. The result is a sculpture which is both realistic and technically accurate.
LONDON (AP) _ Two British flyers captured in the Gulf War tell in a book published today of their torture by the Iraqis and say five British commandos had their fingernails torn out.
Flight Lt. David Waddington, 24, and Flight Lt. Robbie Stewart, 44, are quoted as saying the commandos belonged to the British army's elite Special Air Service regiment.
The SAS committed sabotage behind Iraqi lines, and Waddington and Stewart said the five were subjected to especially horrific torture because they were the toughest of the captured Britons.
They said Iraqi interrogators tore out the commandos' fingernails and burned their legs but gave no other details about them. SAS activities are shrouded in secrecy and the regiment gives no public details about its members.
The $29 book, ''Thunder and Lightning - The RAF in the Gulf'' by Charles Allen, was published by the official government publishing organization. It was authorized by the Royal Air Force.
Waddington, a pilot, and Stewart, his navigator, said an Iraqi missile hit their Tornado fighter-bomber during a low-level attack on an air base in January. They ejected traveling at 600 mph at a height of under 200 feet.
Stewart suffered a broken shoulder and crushed vertebrae and broke his leg in three places.
He said police of Iraq's ruling Baath Party picked him up and put him in a car. ''One of them opened the door and prodded my foot just to see what reaction he would get. I started to vomit because of the pain,'' he said.
He said he was blindfolded and taken to a bunker where he was continuously hit across the legs with a stick. Guards stopped medical staff from giving him a painkiller as they roughly put his dislocated arm back in position, he said.
The two Britons said their interrogations intensified at a Baghdad prison.
Waddington said he was blindfolded throughout and hit on the head, back and legs every time he refused to answer questions.
''Sometimes they'd beat me to the stage where I'd go unconscious. Then I'd come round and they'd ask me another question and beat me up again,'' he said.
Eventually, he said, the Iraqis beat all the information they wanted from him and he was moved to a hospital.
But Waddington said more bad treatment followed when he and other allied prisoners were taken to an interrogation center run by intelligence police.
He said they were kept in separate cells and fed only once a day. His weight fell from 154 pounds to 119 pounds.