Wairarapa is home to family of killed hero | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

New Zealand soldier Tim O'Donnell, who was killed in Afghanistan yesterday, had close family links to Wairarapa.
Lieutenant Tim O'Donnell lived in Feilding but was the son of former Masterton policeman Mark O'Donnell and his wife Maryanne.
Mark O'Donnell was brought up in Masterton and his wife Maryanne in Greytown.
She is the daughter of retired builder Robbie Farmer and his wife Florence, now of Masterton.
Wairarapa family members, including Mark O'Donnell's brother Wayne, who is a senior officer with Greater Wellington Regional Council in Masterton, were making their way to Manawatu early yesterday to support the immediate family.
Brother-in-law Trevor Farmer, who was also supporting the family yesterday, is a former Masterton police photographer.
Mark O'Donnell is no longer with the police but had a distinguished career, leaving Masterton to take up a sergeant's posting elsewhere in the lower North Island, and ended his police career as a senior sergeant in Feilding.
Lieutenant O'Donnell, 28, died while on patrol in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, during an attack by insurgents that involved an improvised explosive device, rocket-propelled grenades and small arms fire.
Two other New Zealand soldiers were injured.
The shock death of Lieutenant O'Donnell brought an immediate sympathetic response from both Air Vice-Marshall Peter Stockwell and Prime Minister John Key, both of whom spoke with Maryanne O'Donnell soon after news of the tragedy broke.
Mr Key said Mrs O'Donnell had asked him to pass on her sympathies to the family of the two injured soldiers and this had shown her ''extraordinary bravery and courage'' and the strength of the wider military family when tragedy struck.
Last night, family members were at a press conference called to further explain what had happened. Plans were under way to return Lieutenant O'Donnell's body to New Zealand. One of the soldier's friends, former Wairarapa Times-Age reporter Christian Bonnevie, told the Manawatu Evening Standard that Lieutenant O'Donnell was ''a bloody good guy'' whom he had met as a reporter when a Cambrian Patrol exercise was being held in the Tararua Ranges in 2007.
Lieutenant O'Donnell had earlier served as a platoon commander, being awarded a Distinguished Service Decoration in the 2008 New Year's Honours.