Birmingham brothers reunited in Afghanistan
TWO brothers from Birmingham have been reunited in Afghanistan, where they are both serving with the Royal Air Force.
Squadron Leader Paul Lilly and his brother, Senior Aircraftsman Matt Barre, half brothers from Great Barr, had not seen each other for nearly nine months when they met up at Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan.
Today, 25-year-old Mr Barre said: “One of the things we all miss when we’re on operations is time with our families.
“So, to be able to spend a few hours catching up with Paul was absolutely fantastic.”
Mr Lilly, who has been in the RAF since 1986, said : “Matt has been incredibly busy in Iraq and Afghanistan. It’s difficult to keep in touch when we’re both dashing around the world on different operations, so it’s pretty amazing that we happened to be in the same place at the same time.”
Mr Barre works with a Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan’s Helmand province and is closely involved in improving living conditions for Afghans throughout the province by working with the Afghan Government.
He said: “The Taliban is putting out a huge amount of misinformation about reconstruction.
“My job is to work on the ‘hearts and minds’ part of the operation, to tell the truth about how hard we’re working to make life better for people.
