Welcome Back

Published on 7th June 2007 in News

Good to have you back: Stuart and girlfriend Becky Woollands celebrate his safe return.

A Goole soldier got one of the biggest - and nicest - surprises of the last few months after his family and friends threw a huge party to welcome him home.

Signaller Stuart Turner (19), of Elsie Street, returned to England at the end of May after seven months in Iraq.

And on Saturday, what Stuart thought was a night out in Doncaster turned out to be surprise party at the Creykes Arms in Rawcliffe.

"I didn't have a clue," said Stuart, who is a member of the 21st Signal Regiment (Air Support) based in Colerne, Wiltshire.

"Everyone was in on it for at least a month.

"At the pub, I kept trying to talk to people and they kept ignoring me.

"I walked around the corner and they all shouted, and the music began.

"I was in shock more than anything else!

"There were quite a few old friends there - it was really good to see people."

Stuart, who flew out on November 2 last year, said that in Iraq the buildings he was based in were often fired at, and one occasion, 37 mortars were fired in four minutes.

"There was a lot of small-arms fire, too," he said.

It made calling home difficult - as Stuart found out on his arrival.

"Me and a friend both phoned home to say we'd got there ok," he said.

Fire interrupted the call and they both had to put the phone down and run for hard cover.

"My phone had loads of texts the next day," he said.

Emails and SMS proved to be the best way to keep in touch.

The soldier said he had "mixed feelings" while he was out there.

"Sometimes it was good, but sometimes we got quite homesick."

Stuart came home for a short break in January but spent Christmas in Iraq.

"I was expecting it to be quite depressing but we all tried to make a good time of it.

"We were all together and morale was quite high."

It was Stuart's first time abroad, and he said that apart from his friends and family, he missed the British weather.

In Basra, temperatures were approaching 40 degrees, and in Kuwait, where he spent the final weeks of his tour, they got up to 50.

"It was red hot out there," he said."I got off the plane in Teesside for a breath of fresh air and I enjoyed the rain - it was the first for a while."

Signaller Turner is now on leave throughout June.

"I would like to thank the people who organised the party," he said.