Since April 2007 it has started to
become a regular sight over the village skies where
the gigantic C17 Air Transporter carries out a low-level
flypast
over the village church bringing home brave soldiers,
airmen and sailors of the armed forces who have paid
the ultimate
price serving for their country.
Eight days after the
nation rejoiced at the return of 15
Royal
Navy
and
Royal Marine
personnel
and coincidentally at the same time a repariation
ceremony of two British
soldiers killed in Iraq, we witnessed another poignant
repatriation ceremony of four
British soldiers killed by
a roadside bomb near Basra, southern Iraq. Lyneham
has been chosen as the RAF Repatriation
Centre for twenty-four months while neighbouring Oxfordshire
airbase RAF Brize Norton undergoes an extensive
upgrade programme of the station to accommodate all
the RAF's air transport and air-to-air refuelling
fleet.
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