Gus Cabre arrived in New Zealand in August 2018 from the UK to take over as Officer Commanding of the Aviation Medicine Unit at the RNZAF base in Whenuapai, Auckland — a role that included being New Zealand’s Head of Delegation for the FVEY Air Force Interoperability Council for Aerospace Medicine. Until then he had been the RAF Command Flight Medical Officer since 2015, in charge of Aviation Medicine policy for the UK MOD. Before that he was Senior Medical Officer of RAF Stations Marham and Honington and the RAF Centre of Aviation Medicine (RAF CAM), where he became Chief Instructor on promotion to Wing Commander in 2010.
Deployments include Op Telic (Iraq, 2003, 2005 and 2007) and Op Herrick (Afghanistan, 2006, within the coalition Role 2 hospital in Kandahar), Op Turus in Central Africa (2015), and several tours to the Falkland Islands including Search and Rescue retrievals. He has been Medical Officer for fast-jet exercises in the Far and Middle East, with the UK’s Joint Helicopter Force in North Africa and the Tactical Leadership Programme in Spain. Since arriving in New Zealand, Gus deployed on HMNZS Aotearoa in the South China Sea and Far East in late 2022, and with the US Navy in November 2023 in the Solomon Islands.
Born in Portsmouth, England, in 1961, the son of a surgeon and a nurse, Gus lived in the UK, Nigeria, Ireland and Spain, becoming fluent in five languages. During his training as a reconstructive surgeon in the NHS his greatest passion was flying; a qualified pilot since 1998, he joined the Royal Air Force. He took over as OIC of the Flying Club at Whenuapai and a tow pilot for the gliding club. Married to Helen, a civilian GP from Christchurch, they have three grown-up children and a dog.
