Flight Sergeant John Rich has been in the Gulf for more than two months now and is missing several things.

He cannot wait to get back to his wife and family but one of the main things he is really looking forward to is a cooling shower of rain.

That is not surprising really for where John is now serving in Iraq the temperature is averaging 42 deg C, a hot searing wind blows for most of the time and sand storms are a regular feature of the weather.

And of course in the aftermath of the war which brought down Saddam Hussein and his regime, water is a precious commodity and there are strict rules on how much you can use when you wash or grab a shower.

John, who has been in the RAF for 26 years and is on his second tour of duty at Lyneham, said: "I don't think I will ever criticise the English weather again and I am really looking forward to a shower of rain."

At the moment he is one of a team of engineers from 24/30 Engineering Squadron whose job it is to keep the two Hercules aircraft now based at Basra International Airport flying.

Before moving to the civilian airport he and the other men were deployed to an airfield in southern Arabia, working with six of the giant transport aircraft that supplied coalition forces during the war.

He said: "We were down there for two months and the new J-model Hercules performed well and exceeded most people's expectations.

"Of course there were some problems but we lifted more freight during that time than Lyneham did with all its aircraft over the same period.

"We completed more than 1,200 flying hours in two months and we managed to keep the aircraft going all the time.

"It was hard work and the boys probably only had one day off a month, but the achievement gave us all a great deal of pleasure.

"We enjoyed the challenge and we moved the full gambit from weapons, spares and people to mail and comporations."

John, who is 44 and married with two teenage children, hopes to be back in the UK around the middle of June.

He asked the Evening Advertiser to pass on a message from him to his wife Jules and children Steven and Natalie.

He said: "Tell them I love and miss them all and am looking forward to coming home.

"When I get back I shall be spending as much time as I can with my family and we will be taking a holiday later in the year but it will not be on an aeroplane."