We Salute Courage of our Fallen Airmen
Gazette & Herald
www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk

NOTHING I have done in eight years as an MP can compare with the experience of attending the sombre and grief-stricken, yet dignified ceremony to receive the coffins of the fallen at RAF Lyneham on Tuesday. Standing on the tarmac alongside the Princess Royal, the families did so well to contain their grief as one by one the ten Union flag draped coffins were carried from the massive C17 cargo plane to waiting hearses, the only sound in the hour long ceremony being the music of the RAF band. A chill wind blew across the brave airmen's home base as their remains were borne home to rest.

Then it was off to the Officers' Mess for what turned out to be an entire afternoon meeting the families, and admiring their stoic self-composure, during what was a hugely emotional occasion. There's nothing that any of us can do to turn back the clock, but I was, glad to be alongside the Princess Royal, the generals, the padres and the RAF officers given particular responsibility for looking after each of the bereaved families and just listening to what they had to say.

There was no bitterness. No regrets. No hatred of the Iraqis, nor even of the Government. There was huge pride that their men had given their lives for the job which they loved and for the country which they loved, and for the cause of peace and democracy in Iraq. They died doing their jobs, and the families, through their grief, seemed to be recognising that. They were very glad that we had persuaded the powers that be to allow the bodies to be repatriated to Lyneham, rather than Brize Norton, which had been the original plan, and they accepted that a C17 rather than their beloved Hercules probably did have practical advantages for the day.

The word the families used more than any other about the ceremony was "dignified". They appreciated the immense care for detail which Station Commander Paul Oborn and his team had applied. Paul Oborn has borne the weight of the tragedy on his shoulders, but has been superb in its aftermath and deserves the thanks and support of the whole Lyneham community.

There is work for all of us ahead. Those airmen and soldiers still serving in Iraq will work on to try to establish some kind of decent stable democracy in that troubled land. If they did not do so, then the lives of the Lyneham ten would have been lost in vain. Of course there are questions still to be asked. We need to know the answer to many factual questions about the cause of the crash. But that is for the future. For now we grieve, with the bereaved, and
with the whole of RAF Lyneham, and we salute the courage of those who gave their lives, and who by that means helped towards freedom and democracy in Iraq. Perhaps not now, but sooner or later the families will be able to take pride in that knowledge. "At the going down of the sun and in the morning - We will remember them…"