Air base is given sword of honour (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Air base is given sword of honour

RAF Lyneham has been presented with a prize sword for its peacetime work.

The Wiltshire airbase has been given the Wilkinson Sword of Peace for 2004 despite stiff competition from RAF stations around the country.

It was awarded for the base's work in the Asian tsunami relief effort and for transporting pilgrims from Iraq to Mecca for the Haj.

The base has won the award before, in 1973, in 1984 and in 2000 for its relief flights into Sarajevo.

Group Captain Paul Oborn, Lyneham station commander, said: "There are many people working tirelessly behind the scenes to achieve the humanitarian successes that we have.

"At the same time our personnel devote their energies to charitable projects and I am so pleased that their efforts have been recognised by the award of this beautiful sword."

RAF Lyneham also played its part in the dramatic rescue of the trapped Russian submarine.

British submarine experts yesterday won a race against time to save the seven sailors who had been trapped for three days 200 metres below the sea.

The rescuers had set off from Britain with help from RAF Lyneham.

A Hercules from the base was sent to RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire to collect crew and equipment and take them on to RAF Prestwick.

From there the rescue team left for Russia.

The specialist equipment was used to cut the cables which were trapping the mini-submarine.

It allowed the submarine to be raised and the sailors rescued.

Russian officials have been quick to praise the British team for their life-saving work.

Rear Admiral Vladimir Pepelyayev, who is the deputy head of the navy's general staff, said: "I can only thank our English colleagues for their work and the help they gave in order to complete this operation within the time we had available that is, before the oxygen reserves ran out."