Keen to be home (From Stroud News and Journal)

Keen to be home

AN RAF engineering officer sent to the Gulf just a few weeks after his first baby was born has spoken of his longing for home.

When former Stroud resident Stuart Naylor, 36, talked to the SNJ on Friday he could not wait to see five-week-old Alexander.

The Flight Lieutenant has spent nearly a month in an unspecified Middle East location with 12 Tornado Squadron.

He said the squadron's 150 members were all keen to come home.

"We don't know how much longer we'll be out here for. That's the $64,000 question. Hopefully it will be sooner rather than later."

Stuart and his wife Vanessa, a dental nurse, recently moved to Scotland after living in Stroud for 10 years.

He is currently based alongside Australian fighter bombers and the American National Guard.

He said the mood was optimistic following last week's fall of Baghdad.

"Everyone is feeling really positive," he said. "They hope the people of Iraq will be allowed to get on with their lives with some freedom and human rights."

He was in Kuwait for the first Gulf War and said conditions were much better this time around.

The biggest difference, he said, was all the news coverage. Troops had access to email, telephones and television and were aware of anti-war protests.

He said he understood the public's concern and was pleased the conflict seemed almost finished.

He said: "People quite rightly saw war is nothing to be taken lightly."

Stuart added the temperature in the Gulf has gone up by a degree a day and on Thursday was 41 degrees. He said: "I am looking forward to a British summer."