The British airman: 'I'm having my first war and my first child in the same week'

My girlfriend Melissa is back at home and is about to have our first baby. I've been doing this job for three and a half years, but I never thought I'd have my first child and my first war in the same week.

We're stationed at a bare base out in the desert, so we've only got what we brought out here ourselves. We've already been out here for two months, and some of the boys have built things like tables, desks and washing lines out of bits of wood they have found lying around.

We've got quite a close group here, and I'd say the average age of this bunch is between 27 and 30. The RAF boys are generally a bit more hyper, and morale is very high at the moment. There have been quite a few six-a-side football matches in the sand.

The weather has calmed down a bit here over the last day or so, the temperature has settled and the storms have gone away. We're very much separate from the American forces. The Americans might co-ordinate things in political terms, but on the military side it's different – very much Brits on one side and the Americans on another. We do help each other out with things like fuel, but we task separately.

The situation in general is very strange, but the first helicopter crash on Thursday brought reality home very rapidly. Of course I miss my girlfriend, and I reckon it will be another few months before I get back to see her. I don't see the point of flying home for two weeks. I think it would be worse to go back and then have to return to the Gulf again, so I'd prefer to wait until it's all over.

Melissa is worried, but I think she's concentrating more on trying to "get the bloody baby out", as she says. She thinks I'm just copping out of half the responsibility of the baby by staying out here.

If I'm honest, I'd rather be here at the moment, and get this done. If I was at home now, I reckon I'd just be a pain in the backside. I miss being there, but I wouldn't miss being here.