Although sitting just a few feet apart from each other in the Headquarters at Multi National Division (South East), Royal Navy Lieutenant Commander Andy Duff, 37, Army Major Huw Parker, 43 and RAF Squadron Leader Steve Hamilton, 36, were unaware they came from the same village, until a friend of Huw’s made the connection and pointed it out to them.

“We were chatting over breakfast one day about living in the North West and didn’t think any more about it” says Lieutenant Commander Andy Duff. “Then Huw met up with another friend of his from Formby, Major Nick Theakston who is working at Shaibah Logistics Base down the road. Nick told him that there were two more of us from Formby working in the Headquarters and introduced us all.”

Commenting on the coincidence, Squadron Leader Steve Hamilton said:

“It’s amazing to think that three people from such a small place, who all lived just a stone’s throw away from each other, have been working in the same office out here without even knowing it.”

Andy, Huw and Steve work in the operations room in the Divisional Headquarters based at Basrah Air station. Andy is the maritime liaison officer in the headquarters, responsible for all maritime issues involving UK and US ships in the area. Huw is the Deputy Chief Engineer, co-ordinating all engineering activity across the division and Steve works as the divisional air aviation officer co-ordinating fixed wing and fast jet activity. For Andy and Huw, this is their second operational tour in Iraq, whilst it’s Steve’s first time.

Both Andy and Huw grew up in Formy and attended ’rival’ schools in nearby Crosby. Huw’s dad Dr Roger Parker, was even Andy’s GP when he was growing up. Originally from Bangor in Northern Ireland, Steve moved to Formby when he was 17.

Andy now lives in Lee-on-Solent in Hampshire and Huw lives in Bristol, whilst Steve still has a house in Formby. “I go back to Formby on a regular basis and my son loves going to the red squirrel sanctuary there” says Andy.

“Once we all found out about each other, we went for a beer together to reminisce about Formby. We talked about how we miss our local pub ‘The Grapes’ and going for walks along Formby beach. The trio are also ‘mad’ Liverpool football club fans. Well, it’s impossible not to be when all the players live in the village” adds Steve.

Major Huw Parker said: I’d been working with Steve for some time on a number of things and

it’s a real coincidence that the three of us have met up like this. We are all here working thousands of miles away from home and it turns out that our houses back in Formby are about a mile apart from one another.

“With each of us being in different services, we wouldn’t normally come into contact with one another except for working in a joint environment such as this. I’m an engineer by trade, Steve flies Puma helicopters normally and Andy was a submariner and is now a surface warfare officer.”

Whilst Andy and Steve are preparing to spend Christmas out in Iraq, Huw is finishing his tour of duty early and will be home for Christmas. “I’m looking forward to being back in time for Christmas. Funnily enough though, I think my daughter Katie is more exited about the fact that I’ll be back for her birthday on 16 th January than the fact that I’ll be home for Christmas” he says.

Andy and Steve will miss celebrating with their new found friend. "But we’ll definitely go out for a beer together in 'The Grapes' when we’re all back in the UK next year” says Steve.