Airmen look forward to return home

Corporal Pete Westwood and Senior Aircraftsman James Ward have seen it all. In Afghanistan, they have seen comrades fall, endured temperatures of 50C and battled sleep deprivation, hunger and homesickness.

But now their gruelling tours of duty are coming to an end and both men cannot wait to return home to their loved ones. Cpl Westwood, aged 28, of Rugeley, is a Royal Air Force electrician and Senior Aircraftsman Ward, also 28 from Wolverhampton, is an RAF firefighter.

Both are at Camp Bastion airfield in Helmand Province.

Cpl Westwood, married to Jo, has a daughter Ella, two, and son Toby, one. He is normally at RAF Marham, near Kings Lynn, but his job at Bastion is to support aircraft electrical systems.

He said: "The conditions are extremely basic and we have limited resources.

"There is little shelter and it is hot and dusty; it can be 50C. It is hard to keep the kit maintained when the dust is like talcum powder.

"You are constantly dismantling equipment to clean out the dust."

Cpl Westwood, whose father owns The Vine Inn, Rugeley, said: "You come to work, go home again then come in the next day and do it all again.

"Going home and seeing my wife and kids will be great – it is my little boy's birthday next month."

SAC Ward is nearing the end of four-months at the base. As a firefighter, he covers the airfield which sees about 6,000 flights a month – on average one every five minutes.

The father-of-one and his team also meet every casualty-evacuation helicopter landing at the base hospital.

These are regarded as the most harrowing aspect of the job as the fire team stretcher battlefield casualties from helicopters to ambulances. "It can be hard sometimes, but together you get through it," he said.

SAC Ward, father of Oliver, six, works 24-hour shifts followed by 24 hours off. The former St Francis of Assisi School student said: "It has been completely different to anything I was expecting. The tempo is 10 times what I was expecting."