MARCH 10: ALL 12-YEAR-OLD Elaina Fitzgerald wants is for her dad to return home.

On February 1 her father Michael, from Rodbourne Cheney, was sent to the Gulf as part of an advance party of reservists from the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry.

Hreod Parkway pupil Elaina and her mother met up in Swindon TA centre, Church Place, with families of Territorial Army members from Wiltshire who are banding together for support after their loved ones were called up.

And Elaina says she does not even think Britain should be going to war with Iraq.

"We had a family holiday just to get away from it all, because we knew what was coming," she said.

"I just want the war to stop and him to come home. It's very hard at school.

"My brother is in year nine and he has just chosen what GCSEs to study so it's hard for him too but he is coping well and there are a lot of people at school I can talk to. My mum is all right I think, she sometimes cries when I argue with my brother but she is keeping her head up." Elaina has a clear message for Tony Blair and George W Bush.

She said: "It makes me really stressed when I see them on TV saying we should go to war.

"I think if one of Tony Blair's children had to go to war he would see it differently. It's not him that's going to war, it's people like my dad."

Many families never thought they would experience war and speak of the struggle they face coping without sons, husbands and fathers.

Jane Field, 34, from Salisbury attended the meeting with her partner's mother Diane Knight, who is also from Salisbury.

The pair say they have been on edge ever since Staff Sergeant Tim Knight, 39, was sent out to the Gulf two weeks ago.

Jane wife, said: "Tim has been in the TA for 20 years but he was only transferred to Swindon a year ago.

"He has been well trained for it but you do get a fear in the pit of your stomach when you think about what could happen to him."