Returning soldiers count their blessings

Soldiers of the Black Watch are welcomed by a lone piper. Picture / reuters

WARMINSTER - Scenes like this have been taking place for as long as there have been wars. The soldier returns, weary and nervous, his head full of memories of those who didn't make it. The child rushes into his arms and the soldier knows he is home.

The men of the Black Watch came back for Christmas yesterday, just as British Prime Minister Tony Blair promised when he sent them to Iraq's "triangle of death".

The first 200 to arrive at the regimental base in Warminster, Wiltshire, marched through the morning mist to the sound of a lone piper. A further 650 will follow over the next few days.

Six men will not make the journey. Private Kevin McHale, 27, died when the Warrior armoured vehicle he was driving overturned. Private Scott McCardle, 22, was killed by a suicide bomb attack on a checkpoint, with Private Paul Lowe, 19, and Sergeant Stuart Gray, 31. Private Pita Tukutukuwaqa, 27, died driving a Warrior that ran over a bomb. Private Mark Ferns was killed in Basra in August.

"It's a real shame we're here today and they're not," said Captain Robert Duncan, 32. "You can't stop thinking about them." Then he turned to his wife for a hug, for the first time in six months.

- INDEPENDENT