SOLDIER Brent Meheux has spoken of the devastating moment he learnt he had lost one of his comrades and best friends — serviceman and city police community support officer Mark Marshall.

For the first time since Rifleman Marshall was killed in Afghanistan earlier this year, an infantryman serving alongside the soldier in the war zone has opened up about the 29-year-old's death.

Lance Corporal Meheux, of Talaton, near Exeter, spoke to the Echo from an Army training camp in Cyprus about his admiration for his friend and why he has no hesitations about returning to one of the most dangerous places in the world.

"To me, Mark was one of my best mates in the TA," said the 45-year-old, who returned from his first tour of Afghanistan around three months ago, where he served for seven months in Kajaki, in Helmand Province.

He said: "Although Mark was 29, he was far more mature than his age.

"We both joined the TA at the same sort of time and we were both based in Exeter.

"We went on a TA skiing trip together and he was so supportive of me as I was scared of heights and everyone knew I didn't like the ski lift. Mark would always volunteer to come up with me.

"Mark was different. He was the sort of person that if he saw kids of around 12 or 13 years old playing around causing trouble, he would walk over and tell them to pack it in. But the young people respected him.

"We both knew we wanted to go to Afghanistan. We both had unfinished business. He said he regretted not going into the Army and I regretted not staying in the Army when I was younger — there was a bond there."

Rifleman Marshall, who worked as a PCSO in Countess Wear, Exeter, was killed by an improvised explosive device while on routine patrol in February.

"Mark was universally liked," said L/Cpl Meheux. "He was really worried about the other guys finding out about him being in the police but by the time they found out, he had won them over."

L/Cpl Meheux had just returned to Afghanistan after two weeks off when he was told of Mark's death.

"Within a day of being back there, my commanding officer told me we had lost someone — I knew it was one of the TA lads. I looked at him, he said 'It's Marshall, I'm really sorry'.

"He offered me the chance to stay in Camp Bastion but I just wanted to get back to the lads — I just wanted to get on with my job.

"When someone dies, we always have a memorial service and one of the guys was a bugler so he would always play the Last Post.

"The saddest thing is, he wasn't very good at the beginning, but he was by the end.

"When we lose someone, there will always be someone who knows them. Someone will be upset and you give them a cuddle."

Within days of being in Afghanistan for the first time since joining the TA three years ago, L/Cpl Meheux, a graphic designer, was just metres away when a comrade was killed stepping on a hidden homemade bomb.

"I was about seven-and-a-half metres from a lad who stepped on an IED," he said.

"The medics tried to save his life. We told everyone not to move and myself and another carried him to the helicopter. All I could think of was 'He has got to get up, I've got a son his age'.

"We didn't know he was dead when we carried him into the helicopter. That was traumatic."

Despite witnessing such tragedy, L/Cpl Meheux, who is helping to train soldiers from Exeter's 6 Rifles, based at Wyvern Barracks, at a tough camp in Cyprus in preparation for their possible future deployment to Afghanistan, said he would return to the war zone.

"I would go back out there," he said.

"I'm very passionate about one thing — if you take the Queen's shilling, you have to be man enough to do the job.

"My wife Barbara and my two step-children have been so supportive.

"I know my wife worried the whole time I was out there but she dealt with it by never watching the news.

"I've had people shake my hand in service stations — it makes you incredibly proud. I think we're doing an amazing job."