Bomb disposal expert was an 'absolute hero' (From Daily Echo)

Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid was an 'absolute hero' says widow Christina

11:07am Friday 6th November 2009 in News

HE had saved many of his comrades’ lives by defusing dozens of bombs primed to kill British soldiers.

Yesterday six of those comrades from Staff Sgt Olaf Schmid’s unit carried his coffin, draped in a Union flag, off the plane that returned him home.

Gently the six soldiers carried him from the aircraft to the waiting hearse at RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire, five days after he was killed while trying to make safe a home-made bomb by a roadside in the Helmand province in Afghanistan.

He had defused 64 devices, including 31 in a single operation, and found 11 bombmaking centres during his five month tour with the Royal Logistics Corps.

He was killed on his last operational day before returning home to see his family in Harestock, Winchester.

After a brief ceremony on the runway and a private service at the base chapel, the hearse began the start of Staff Sgt Schmid’s slow final journey.

But he was not alone.

Hundreds of ordinary people lined the roadside, many throwing flowers on to the cortege.

In Wootton Bassett, the townspeople again stood quietly as the cortege passed. They have done so for almost all the 230 servicemen who have passed along their streets since the war i n Afghanistan started in 2002.

Major Wayne Davidson, officer in command of the Royal Logistic Corps, said: “To see the people of Wootton Bassett here today is humbling but in my eyes it is a necessary process to pay respects to a person that has given the ultimate sacrifice, his life.”

His widow, Christina said: “I am very pleased to have my husband home, he is an absolute hero. It was awesome to see that plane coming in and to see him being taken off by his friends.”

Mrs Schmid, who lives with her son Laird, five, from a previous relationship, said her husband, 30, who was also known as Oz, was like the cartoon character Tigger.

“He had lots of energy but also great presence, he was warm and friendly but behind closed doors he was my best friend,” she said.

She said her husband had wanted members of his unit to carry him off the plane: “He said he wanted those people around him who he had served with. And to see his best friends carry him off made me proud, I am beaming.

“He was an awesome guy, he is dead but I am alive and I do not have the luxury of grieving, I am going to live my life and carry on those plans we made together.”

The cortege then travelled to Oxford where a post-mortem was due to be conducted at a local hospital.

In Oxford hundreds more people lined the route, in a tribute organised by the Royal British Legion.

Jim Lewendon, vice-president of the Royal British Legion in Oxfordshire, said: “It’s impossible to know how many soldiers’ lives Staff Sgt Schmid saved – he was incredibly brave and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was nominated for a posthumous award.”