Posted on 11/11/2005 3:35:14 PM PST by naturalman1975
NINE SAS colleagues of Warrant Officer David Nary carried his flag-draped coffin as his body was returned to his hometown of Perth.
Warrant Officer Nary's four children, his parents and his widow Naomi, a former sergeant in the Australian Army, were at Perth's international airport when his body was brought home from the Middle East late on Thursday night.
His SAS mates formed a military bearer party around the coffin, while a condolence note bearing the SAS logo in a local newspaper described him as "a great comrade".
A funeral service will be held next week.
Warrant Officer Nary - the first Australian soldier to die in the Middle East since the start of the Iraq war in early 2003 - was among those honoured at yesterday's Remembrance Day commemorations at Perth's Kings Park.
The 42-year-old - one of the nation's most experienced SAS soldiers, who served in the Middle East, East Timor and Afghanistan - was killed in a freak accident in Kuwait close to dusk last Sunday.
Fellow soldiers tried desperately to resuscitate him after he was hit by an army vehicle during advanced training for protective security operations in Iraq.
Friends and former colleagues this week remembered a "top bloke", a committed soldier and devoted family man with an endearing sense of humour.
In the 1990s, Warrant Officer Nary's love of motorbikes had him riding around Singleton, NSW, on a Harley-Davidson.
At the Perth War Memorial overlooking the Swan River yesterday, hundreds of veterans, dignitaries and members of the public gathered to lay wreaths and observe a minute's silence.
On the first Remembrance Day held without a living active serviceman from World War I, West Australian Acting Governor David Malcolm led the tributes to those who died serving their country.
They included Warrant Officer Nary, who served with the SAS for 17 years.
Mrs Nary is mourning the loss of a military husband for the second time in 12 years.
Her first husband, SAS corporal Gordon Holland, died in a training accident at the Swanbourne barracks in Perth in 1993.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.