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Flight Sergeant Andrew Bruce Forster - Source: ONE News -
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An air force officer killed by an artillery shell which exploded at Waiouru Military Camp on Thursday was a devoted family man and an "awesome all-round Kiwi bloke", his brother-in-law says.
Flight Sergeant Andrew Forster, 46, was killed instantly when a shell detonated at the camp in the central North Island. A colleague standing next to him survived, suffering only minor scratches.
Forster was an experienced armaments specialist and had recently returned from Bamiyan in Afghanistan, where he worked as a bomb disposal expert in the Defence Force's provincial reconstruction team.
He joined the force's explosives ordnance disposal squadron at Waiouru just 10 days ago.
His brother-in-law Glen Langvad told a press conference at Ohakea air force base that Forster was a committed father and a keen military man.
"He loved it. It was what he was born to do."
Forster's wife Karen and three teenage children, Candice, Mitchell and Ashlee, are devastated, he says.
It is the first time a New Zealand serviceman has been killed during operations at Waiouru.
The Defence Force says the other sergeant who survived the blast is still too traumatised to talk.
"Our world has been rocked, not only in the armament section but air force and army, it's really knocked the wind out of us," says commander of operation, Carl Smith.
A military funeral will be held on Tuesday at 2.15pm at Ohakea.
