AN RAF chaplain who grew up in Crosscrake is providing a strong shoulder and sympathetic ear for squadrons stationed at a coalition airbase in the Gulf.

Rev Flt Lt Stephen Radley, 34, has found himself counselling airborne forces and conducting religious services inside a makeshift house of God a tent.

The former Queen Elizabeth School pupil, whose parents still live in the Kendal area, joined the RAF three-years ago following his curacy.

Speaking to The Westmorland Gazette from a secret location outside Iraq, where he has been based with British, American and Australian forces since February, he explained his role in the conflict.

"As a chaplain I firstly provide worship working as part of a team. I get to know people very well on a detachment and I am here to be a friend to everyone regardless of their religious beliefs.

"People have the opportunity to talk over their stresses and anxieties that come with the situation and problems back home."

The father-of-two said many of the aircrew, who are flying GR4 Tornado bombers against military targets in Iraq, preferred to talk among themselves.

"The air crew pilots and navigators out here are flying jets over Iraq 24-hours-a-day and facing a lot of danger. A lot of weapons have been used against them. But they tend to deal with what they have seen by talking to each other."

But he said many of the younger squadron members had sought spiritual solace after a "very frightening" air raid at the secret base.

Despite the heat there are home comforts in the form of DVDs and an impromptu gym courtesy of the well-equipped US troops.

The war sits easier with the man of the cloth who said he believed Christianity was "fairly well placed" to explain the conflict. "Peace is something that is sometimes violent to achieve. War is a terrible and tragic thing seen a lot of suffering but it also brings out the best in people," he said.

April 17, 2003 16:30