The anxious parents: 'Is that Emily in a chemical suit?'

Paddy Hughes lives with his wife Stephanie in Saffron Walden, Essex. A 65-year-old farmer, he has four children including a 26-year-old daughter Emily, who is serving in the Army Air Corps of the 16 Air Assault Brigade. All the Hugheses know is that she is somewhere in Iraq

I think they are all very well trained and they wanted to get going. But it's a worrying time, you don't know what's going to happen. Hearing about that helicopter crash on Friday really brought it home to us. Emily had just finished her helicopter training.

We think the war is a bit iffy. The Iraqis haven't invaded anybody like they did the last time. We're told Saddam Hussein has chemical weapons, but we don't know how true those claims are. But now they've made the decision we've got to back them, haven't we? We feel now they just have to get on with it and get the job done.

My wife thought I was a bit more for the war than she was, but we both feel that way now. I think it's bad these demonstrations are going on. The people protesting aren't going to stop it now.

The biological stuff is the most worrying. They said missiles had been fired into Kuwait and you can't help wondering whether Emily is there. They said something about headquarters, and I think she might be there, but we don't know exactly where she is. We see people in those chemical suits and we think "Is she one of those?". I had a letter from her last week to wish me happy birthday. She just gave her address as "The Desert". She was upbeat. I think morale is fairly good. They were having dreadful sandstorms and she said she couldn't see the end of the tent, the sand is like powder.

But it's their job when it comes to it, it's one of those things that they have to do. They've been training all the time they've been there and she said it was all getting a bit boring. For them it's best to be doing something. They want to get on with it.

Emily's an optimist like her parents. If you're a farmer you have to be an optimist.