MANY a son has followed his father into the armed forces.

But when Cpl Rick Aldred joined the RAF he never expected to be in his father’s former squadron doing the same deadly job of disarming bombs.

And he has been doing so on the frontline in Afghanistan – where bombs have claimed many British lives.

A career in the RAF was an apt choice for Rick, 29, who was born in Germany at an air force base where his father Steve was serving.

Steve, 53, of Meltham, worked as a Bomb Disposal Operator for the RAF for more than 28 years.

He disarmed explosive devices at home in the UK and in Kuwait and Bosnia in the 1990s.

Two years after Steve retired from the service in 2004, Rick signed up for the RAF.

After service in Iraq arming and checking planes, Rick found himself at his dad’s old airbase – RAF Wittering, near Peterborough – learning his dad’s former trade of deactivating IEDs (improvised explosive devices).

After working for the bomb squad in the UK, Rick was posted on a six-month tour of Afghanistan.

Rick came back to England in October after a busy time in the Taliban stronghold of Nahr-e Saraj, Helmand Province.

In six months, Cpl Aldred has helped disarm and destroy about 50 IEDs planted by Taliban rebels on bridges, behind walls and in other vulnerable places.