About Bear Force

Richard has been involved with charity fundraising for the Royal Air Force for 15 years and is also a professional photographer and successful businessman working alongside his wife in their interior design company. He founded Bear Force (previously WCAB) following the loss of their son to suicide in 2013.

Richard (and AB Bear) has worked with various Air Forces, Police Forces, Air Support units, Blue Chip Airlines, and now schools, to raises awareness of the need for children to speak out about their worries and for adults to give them the time and safe spaces to listen to them. He initially wrote the book ‘AB Gets his Wings’, re-titled ‘Bear Force’ after its adaption for use with schools and caregivers. The book has now sold thousands of copies.

Lisa has worked in regional and national media since leaving school, becoming Group Sales Director for the the Daily Mail’s print operations in 2006 where she developed a wide understanding of audience engagement. She has also worked closely with local government, central government, several charities, and famous personalities.

She helped adapt the book ‘AB Gets his Wings’ so that it could be used by caregivers to explore the emotions of children on a deeper level following her previous work with the national children’s charity ‘KidsOut’ who support children and their mothers in refugees escaping domestic abuse. She has also worked with organisations supporting children in the care system.

Group Captain Rob Caine has over 2500 fast jet hours and is CFS accredited. He was awarded an MBE in 2015 for his services to Military Flying Training in the New Year’s Honours List and was awarded the 2019 Master’s Medal from the Guild of Air Pilots for innovation. He is a graduate of the Joint Services Command and Staff College with an MA from Kings College London. Rob is married, and they have a young son who keeps them very busy.

He is passionate about mentoring, coaching, high performance and psychology whether in sport, equine competition or military aviation. He also loves supporting charities like RAFA, and the Dove (Bereavement) Service, and is linked to better mental health and suicide prevention services.

Adrian served as a fast-jet pilot in the Royal Air Force for over 39 years flying the Jaguar GR1A/1B//3A operationally and the Hawk T1 in the training role. He amassed over 3500 flying hours, flying on air operations over Iraq and the Balkans, and served as a Qualified Flying Instructor and Qualified Weapons Instructor. He also commanded 19 (Fighter) Squadron and RAF Valley, interspersed with nearly 20 years in a variety of Joint and Staff appointments, including 12 years in NATO roles overseas. He retired from the RAF as an Air Commodore in early 2023 to rekindle his love for flying and flying instruction, and is currently a civilian contractor Qualified Flying Instructor teaching the basic fast-jet pilot training syllabus to the next generation of RAF and RN pilots on the Texan T1 at RAF Valley.

Adrian first met Richard Bland and WCAB when he was serving as Officer Commanding 19 (Fighter) Squadron between 2006-09, frequently flying WCAB in the Hawk T1 on training sorties around the UK. In 2010-11, WCAB accompanied Adrian for several months of his operational tour in Afghanistan, where WCAB flew on various U.S. and Afghan Air Force aircraft on operational missions. The friendship continued to build when Adrian returned to RAF Valley as the Station Commander between 2011-13, which was the main period when Richard made his connections with the Dove (Bereavement) Service, and the idea of writing the first WCAB book and creating a charity, which has now become The Bear Force Charity, first started.

Adrian is delighted to be an Ambassador for The Bear Force Charity, and looks forward to continuing to support Richard, WCAB and the Charity’s wider aims and ambitions.

Dr Sarah-Louise Miller is a historian of war and conflict, specialising in airpower and aviation, the Second World War and military intelligence and innovation. She is a lecturer in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London and teaches at the UK Defence Academy in Shrivenham. She is also a visiting scholar at the University of Oxford’s Faculty of History, and is a member of Kellogg College, Oxford. Sarah received her PhD from the Department of War Studies, King’s College London, in July 2022. Her thesis examined the work of the Allied naval services in British intelligence during the Second World War, focusing on the Battle of the Atlantic and the Pacific Naval War. She is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, a member of the King’s Intelligence and Security Group, and an Associate of both the Laughton Naval History and Maritime Strategy Unit and the Freeman Air and Space Institute at King’s College London. Sarah is the author of several books and is currently working on a history of the Lancaster Bomber. She also appears regularly on British television, having featured on various history documentaries for the BBC, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5 and Sky History.

Hi I’m Ellie and i am a photographer as well as i work at Cineworld Ashford as a mental health ambassador too. I am also a Community Councillor in Ashford. The reason I joined Bear force is because it means alot to me to raise awareness for children’s mental health and seeing them smile. Bear Force makes me truly happy. Because these days and during the pandemic and lockdown i lost my sense of togetherness and i lost trust in myself and my confidence. Slowly as we were coming out of restrictions I started finding my true self and I found Bear Force.

It is when GB turned up the understudy teddy bear to his brother WCAB and I was allowed to name him and this gave me and was able to participate in everything and I found that this team helped me and supported me that I was able to find myself again.

Me and WCGB likes to go around to places as well as raising awareness for children’s mental health and we like meeting people too, that’s our speciality. We love sharing the bear force love and seeing what it makes to their day. When I was at university I was able to champion students’ needs and I was able to voice their concerns to the governors, so I was a student governor for 6 years from college and university. I have also just completed a course in level 2 in mental health awareness for children and young people.

I was raised as an RAF “Brat” on a Vulcan base (617 “Dambusters” Squadron adron based at RAF Waddington) with my RAF Engineer father, and was always around military aircraft from birth. I became an RAF CCF Cadet at age 13, and was lucky enough to get a gliding scholarship and went solo for the first time aged 16 at RAF Benson on Venture motorgliders.

I applied to the RAF (Turned down due eyesight), and pretty much every branch of the military to fly, but was accepted as a Cadet Pilot by British Airways aged 18, and went straight from 6th form and A Levels to BAE Flying College at Prestwick in 1990. We flew PA28, AS202 Bravos and Piper Senecas during training.
Laid off in 1992 after finishing flying training due to Gulf War 1, after a few odd jobs I had a 3 year stint working as a steward down the back of DC10s and 747 Classics, before joining BA as flight crew on the 757/767 fleet on January 1st 1996.
I moved to the 777 in 2000, beginning a 14 year stint on the “Triple”, before moving to the then brand new Boeing 787 for a command in 2014. I applied for and was accepted for a Training Captain position in March 2015, and have now done 8 years as a type-rating instructor (TRI) and CAA examiner (TRE) on the 787.
I came across WCAB and his antics on Twitter a few years ago, and thought “What a lovely charity to be involved in..” and here I am!

I feel very privilege to be an Ambassador to AB Bear and the Bear Force.

I thank them for the opportunity to promote mental health issues of our children and young adults and to encourage them to seek a better way forward with professional help, who will assist them to visualise a future with confidence and hope. As Sales Director of one of the leading commercial flooring companies in the UK (Direct Commercial Flooring), I get approached by charities for support all the time. Bear Force’s work moved me considerably and I just had to be involved.