GULF WAR II: 10 British war dead flown home + Prince Andrew salutes fallen

UNDER Union flags beneath a hazy spring afternoon sky, one by one the boys came home.

Borne aloft on the shoulders of comrades-in-arms, Britain's first ten fallen warriors returned from the explosive hell of a distant desert to the quiet bosom of their grieving families.

And on the expanse of the Oxfordshire military airfield moments of moving dignity overcame the undignified grimness of war.

As the massive C17 aircraft carrying the ten coffins back from the Middle East touched down at RAF Brize Norton, tears stung the watching eyes.

At the nearby terminal families held each other close amid the gold braid, ribbons and uniforms of senior military officials.

Stirring

A few feet from Prince Andrew, a father bowed his head and cried for his boy. Near Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon a weeping mother was hugged by a bewildered son.

Then the rear of the aircraft opened up and slowly unloaded its cargo of sorrow.

Spotless while gloves gripping uniformed shoulders, arms crossed beneath polished wood, the pall-bearers slow-marched their dead comrades to waiting hearses. Solemnity in every perfect footfall.

And Army, Royal Navy and RAF were united as one as the stirring strains of Handel's Death March, played by the Royal Marines band of Plymouth, filled the air.

First to be carried from the plane was 28-year-old Royal Navy mechanic Ian Seymour.

Three chaplains in their vestments at the foot of the ramp murmured prayers as six bearers from HMS Collingwood in Portsmouth, led by a senior naval officer, marched with the coffin.

Each serviceman was brought out in order of their seniority of service. Next came Colour Sgt John Cecil and Marine Sholto Hedenskog, 26, both of the Royal Marines, followed by Sgt Les Hehir, 34, and L Bdr Llywelyn Evans, 24, both of the Royal Artillery. The coffins of Major Jason Ward, 34, Captain Philip Guy, 29, and Warrant Officer 2 Mark Stratford, 39, followed.

The first eight had all been killed in the tragic US helicopter crash south of the Kuwait border. The bodies of RAF Flight Lieutenants Dave Williams, 35, and Kevin Main, 37, followed. They died in friendly fire when their RAF GR4 Tornado aircraft was hit by a Patriot missile. Their coffins were all taken by hearses to a temporary mortuary in the air base's gym. After being officially discharged by the coroner they will be released to the families.

Afterwards former Tank Commander Col Mike Victory—a veteran of the last Gulf War— summed up the sad homecoming of the first of Britain's 23 casualties.

"When you leave for war you say your goodbyes as if you're not coming back," he said.

"But nothing can diminish the feeling of loss when you hear the awful news that a loved one is dead."