THE vast move of personnel from RAF Lyneham to RAF Brize Norton was completed yesterday with the opening of a new £14.7m facility.

The purpose-built complex houses the Tactical Medical Wing (TMW), the country’s only military air medical wing, and reservists from 4626 Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

Both squadrons are responsible for dropping into war zones to bring injured service personnel home for treatment.

Yesterday, the new facility, which will house response-ready personnel and training, was officially opened by the Chief of the Air Staff, Sir Stephen Dalton.

It is the final project to be completed at Brize to house the estimated 4,000 personnel that moved from RAF Lyneham following its closure in 2011.

Sir Stephen said: “This specialist facility – when allied with the global air mobility capability that RAF Brize Norton delivers – provides the UK armed forces with a first-class rapid-reaction medical capability.”

Senior Aircraftman Simon Ward, of TMW, returned from his first tour of Afghanistan in February this year and treated bomb and rocket attack victims.

He said: “We did not get the chance to think about the pressure. It was such fast-paced action with casualties that you think about it more afterwards.

“I am proud of doing the job and being able to take the patients to hospitals.”

SAC Ward said he was inspired to join the squadron because his mother is an A&E nurse in Liverpool.

Fl Lt Harmony Slade, of TMW, returned from Afghanistan in October and will head back out in January.

She said: “It is the best and the worst job in the world for the same reasons.

“All we want to do is deliver the best treatment to our casualties but unfortunately someone has got to be seriously injured for us to do our work.”

TMW formed in 1996 and had its base – across 11 separate buildings – at RAF Lyneham. It was the last squadron to leave Lyneham, in October last year.

Wing Cdr Phil Spragg, officer commanding TMW, said: “Bringing all the assets together under two rooves makes a significant difference in the ability to train and deploy personnel.

“There were 11 disparate buildings stretched over real estate of a couple of miles at RAF Lyneham.”

Wing Cdr Colin Mathieson, officer commanding 4626 Squadron, said: “I am lucky enough to have been in the squadron 28 years and I remember when we were working out of old huts with no heating and very few windows.

“To see us move to an incredible building of this magnitude and purpose built for us is superb to see.”