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The worried dad of missing airman Corrie McKeague has made an emotional plea for help, saying: “I just want to find my son.”

Martin has been left devastated since gunner Corrie mysteriously vanished during a drunken night out in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, eight miles from his base at RAF Honington, last September.

Martin told the Sunday People: “I’m still trying to get my head around everything. I’m doing the best I can. I’m just a dad who’s trying to get his son back.”

He spoke out as Corrie’s mum Nicola Urquhart today prepared to lead an emotional public search to find him.

She is expected to be joined by her husband David and her two sons Makeyan, 25, and Darroch, 21, as well as more than 100 volunteers, including 60 search-and-rescue leaders from four counties.

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Nicola, 48, a family liaison officer for Police Scotland, has previously criticised the Suffolk force’s handling of Corrie’s disappearance.

Suffolk Police are not taking part in the hunt.

Five cadaver dogs – trained to find dead bodies – a drone team, which will concentrate on rivers and waterways, and 14 4x4s will also join the “route and path search”.

It will focus on remote areas in Mildenhall, Cavenham Heath and Kings Forest, close to where Corrie’s phone last transmitted a signal.

It is understood Martin is not involved in today’s hunt, which is being funded by a private donation paid by his ex-wife using cash raised via a crowd-funding website.

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Thousands of kind supporters donated more than £50,000 to help towards costs. Martin, 48, who spent Christmas morning at the spot where his son was last seen, split up with Nicola when Corrie was nine.

Nicola went on to marry David Urquhart, a former policeman.

Corrie’s paternal grandmother Mary praised the police efforts, saying: “They’re doing the best they can.”

In a Facebook post, Martin added: “Our hope is that you continue to raise questions, offer up your ideas and recommend that anyone who thinks they might have some clue to Corrie’s whereabouts contacts the Suffolk Police incident room. That’s how we’ll bring Corrie home together.”

Last week, Corrie’s uncle Tony Wringe revealed the family had hired private investigators, who were using military software to find him.

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Since Corrie’s disappearance Suffolk Police have carried out “extensive” investigative work, including searching nearby woodland areas and scouring hundreds of hours of CCTV.

In November, however, following criticism from Corrie’s uncle, the force admitted they had “no leads”. On Monday, it was revealed police were bringing in sniffer dogs to search Bury St Edmunds.

Corrie’s brother Darroch said: “We’ll do the search and see what comes of that and then we can plan ahead from that.”

Asked if he thought his brother was still alive, he added: “Honestly, I don’t bloody know. It looks slim in my eyes. I know it’s a cr*p thing to say, but we won’t give up hope.”

Corrie was last seen on CCTV in Bury St Edmunds town centre at 3.25am on September 24 last year.

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He was wearing a light pink shirt and white jeans. Earlier that day, he had arranged to spend Friday night with friends but missed his arranged lift.

At 10pm he drove to the town, before parking his BMW Z4 sports car in a pay-and-display car park.

Ten minutes later he rang his younger brother Darroch and chatted for around half-an-hour, while downing alcoholic drinks in his car, and arranged to meet up soon afterwards.

At 10.50pm, he joined friends at the town’s So Bar, before moving on to a large branch of JD Wetherspoon.

He and his friends then carried on to Flex nightclub at half past midnight. But Corrie stayed for just half-an-hour before being asked to leave by a doorman who said he was drunk.

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Corrie left the club alone before walking to Pizza Mama Mia, a fast-food restaurant 500 yards away, where he was seen playing a game of “rock, paper, scissors” with a fellow customer, before ordering two burgers, a kebab, and a portion of chips.

At 1.20am, CCTV showed him walking past the Grapes pub, before stopping at the doorway of an electrical store where he sat down to eat and then fell asleep.

At around 3am, the serviceman woke up and looked at his phone. He then got to his feet and was caught on film for the last time, walking into a horseshoe-shaped area behind a branch of Greggs at 3.25am.

Police say he could not have walked out of the area without being seen by CCTV but Corrie has never been seen again.

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Mobile data records recovered by police show his phone was later in the vicinity of Barton Mills, 12 miles north-west of Bury St Edmunds, after it moved there at a speed consistent to that of a vehicle.

The phone stopped transmitting at around 8am, suggesting it had either run out of battery, been turned off or been destroyed. It has never been found.

A string of theories about the case have appeared online, including that Corrie staged his own disappearance, was abducted by terrorists or was murdered by a stranger.