Brave words of veteran airman killed in Afghanistan...

A part-time airman based at RAF Wittering near Stamford has become the oldest British serviceman to be killed in war-torn Afghanistan or Iraq.

Before his deployment in February, Senior Aircraftman Gary Thompson, 51, told the Stamford Mercury:

I have five daughters, three of whom are at university. I want women in Afghanistan to be given the same opportunity that my daughters have had.

It means I can come back and say I have played my part in trying to make that happen.

His quote was picked up by tonight's News at Ten (who didn't bother crediting the Mercury) - and the BBC's national site (who did).

His daughters Laurie, 24, Aimee, 22, Jordan, 20, Jade, 17 and Kelly, 16, spoke of their unending love for a man they said was "more than our hero."

Their Dad left his job as a managing director in Nottingham to fight the Taliban. He was killed along with Senior Aircraftman Graham Livingstone - a young Scot also based at Wittering - when their patrol vehicle was blown up on a road close to Kandahar Airfield on Sunday.

Gary Thompson, a member of the RAF Regiment Auxiliary is the fifth TA or reservist personnel to be killed in Afghanistan since the deployment of British forces in 2001.

The Stamford Mercury has invited tributes to the two brave airmen.