LAST week, military bandmaster Captain Kevin Roberts was at home with wife, Sally, celebrating their twin daughters' birthdays.

Yesterday, he had to say farewell to Sally, and Jasmin and Madeline, without knowing for certain when he will see them again.

Capt Roberts commands the Normandy Band of the Queen's Division - the latest unit to be sent to the Gulf as tension over Iraq mounts.

Yesterday its members were given a musical send-off by neighbours, the Waterloo Band, with whom they share barracks on the Piave Lines at Catterick Garrison, North Yorkshire.

Once the unit arrives in Kuwait, instruments will be put away because all the musicians are also trained medics and will join 24 Field Hospital, ready to treat casualties of any military action.

"We can also take on a variety of other roles, depending on what happens when we are over there," said Capt Roberts. "We are equally trained to help with security around the field hospital and some may be asked to join medical support units should British forces be required to move."

Morale appeared high yesterday; there was as much laughter as there were tears, as kit bags were loaded on to a coach taking the troops to a staging post in York, before flying off to the Middle East later this week.

The unit had been given a few days leave before its departure and most had already said their farewells.

But Gill Nicholas brought baby daughter, Jaime, to say goodbye to husband, Jon.

"The band travels a lot and is away quite often, but this feels completely different," she said. "It's not knowing when he'll be home, I suppose."

And, Jon admitted he was finding it hard to come to terms with the fact he will miss his daughter growing up.

"By the time I come home again, she may have already said her first word or taken her first steps, and I won't have been there," he said.

Former Polam Hall pupil, 21-year-old Lindsey Davison, from Newton Aycliffe, County Durham, who plays clarinet and violin in the band, admitted she never thought she could one day be sent to war.

"But that's what we are trained to do,'' she said.

"Sometimes it's easy to forget you're a soldier first and a musician second.

"But, to be honest, now I know I'm going to the Gulf, I just want to get on with it.

"I've got a great bunch of people around me and I know they'll look out for me."