The remains of three defence force personnel who died overseas have been brought back to New Zealand and handed back to their families in an emotional ceremony.
The caskets were flown in from the South Pacific and carried off the RNZAF Hercules at Ohakea Air Force base.
The three men died and were buried in Fiji and American Samoa in the 1950s and early 1960s.
The bodies were brought back to Ohakea as part of the project Te Auraki (The Return), under which the remains of defence force personnel buried overseas after January 1, 1955, are brought home.
Group Captain Carl Nixon, leading the project, said the families of those being repatriated were the NZDF's main priority.