TODAY we unveil a fitting tribute, in the form of a statue, to Pilot Officer Andrew Mynarski. There are many remarkable aspects to his story.

He had the opportunity to jump from a blazing Second World War bomber a couple of thousand feet above France. But instead, on seeing his best friend was trapped, he turned back. He fought his way through the flames and, with his clothing on fire, did all that he possibly could to save his friend.

It was only when it became clear to both himself and his friend Pat Brophy that his efforts were in vain that he thought about saving his own skin.

By then, of course, it was too late. He was on fire from the waist down and his parachute - his only means of escape - was also ablaze.

He had laid down his own life attempting to save that of his friend.

But perhaps the most remarkable aspect of all of this is that we know any of it.

We only know because, by a twist of fate, Brophy survived. Trapped in a turret in a burning, plummeting plane with only five tons of high explosives for company, his chances must have been as close to zero as is mathematically possible.

Yet, seconds before the big bang, the plane smashed into a tree and Brophy was thrown clear.

Brophy himself said that the only reason he was saved was so that he could tell the world the story of his friend's remarkable heroism.

The statue unveiled today is a monument to that heroism.

But more than that, it is a monument to all the stories of heroism that we've never heard because no one survived to tell them.

About 55,500 Allied aircrew lost their lives in the Second World War. All of them had heroic stories to tell. Admittedly, those stories weren't quite so headline-grabbing as Mynarski's, but all of them could have told about sacrificing their families, their homes, their careers, their lives and their futures for the rest of us.

The war may have ended 60 years ago - practically a lifetime ago - but the statue at Durham Tees Valley Airport shows that we do still remember with gratitude all of those who, like Andrew Mynarski, heroically gave their all so we may taste freedom.