Leading Seaman Scott Bennet was one of nine Australian Defence Force staff killed when their Sea King helicopter crashed while on a post-tsunami relief mission on Indonesia's Nias Island on April 2, 2005.

Mrs Bennet, who now lives in Nowra, was one of dozens of family members and friends of fallen peacekeepers who travelled to Canberra on Friday to see 48 names added to the Australian War Memorial's Roll of Honour.

Her loss, and her family's loss, was no less than if Leading Seaman Bennet had been killed in a war zone, she said.

Until Friday, service personnel killed in ''non-warlike'' operations were only recognised in a book of remembrance at the AWM.

''This [the formal recognition of fallen peacekeepers] could not come soon enough,'' she said. ''It is a shame we had to wait for 60 years.''

Tony Bingley, the father of Captain Mark Bingley who died in a Black Hawk helicopter crash off Fiji on November 29, 2006, and Mark's stepmother, Noelene, agree.

''This a very proud day,'' Mr Bingley said. ''At last we've got somewhere to go.''

They remain in close contact with Captain Bingley's widow, Melissa, and grandson, Mitchell, who live in Queensland. Mitchell was three months old when his father died.

SAS Corporal Joshua Porter was killed in the same accident. The Black Hawk toppled over the side of HMAS Kanimbla after a heavy landing with 10 people aboard.

Mrs Bennet and the Bingleys praised the AWM's director, Brendan Nelson, for his part in turning around the council's view on including peacekeepers on the honour roll.

Council members had for years resisted efforts to list diggers killed in non-warlike operations, including an online petition signed by more than 42,000 Australians.

They argued the memorial had been established to recognise war dead, a technicality that escaped most other people.

Critics of that position, including petition organisers Sarah McArthy of Canberra and Avril Clarke of Perth, said peacekeeping operations did not exist when the memorial was conceived.

More Australians have died on peacekeeping missions since the end of World War II than in the war in Afghanistan.

Dr Nelson said the inclusion of the names of men and women who died serving their country on non-warlike operations was effectively a no-brainer.

''The war memorial is finally complete,'' he said.

Paul Copeland, of the Australian Peacekeeper and Peacemaker Veterans' Association, agreed. ''A family's loss is just the same [regardless of warlike or non-warlike operations]. Equality in service means equality in death,'' Mr Copeland said.

Mrs Bennet said the day she learnt her husband had been killed, along with eight of his colleagues, was the worst of her life.

She was already worried, having heard a navy helicopter had crashed, when his squadron commander and the chaplain walked down the driveway.

''I didn't want to let them in,'' she said. ''It was almost as hard for them as it was for me. My first thought was, 'how am I going to tell my two boys [one six and the other eight]'.''

Almost nine years on, that conversation is a blur. ''I just knew that I had to sit down and tell them.''

Time takes a long, long time to heal wounds to families that cut this deep.

Mrs Bennet and the Bingleys say their losses feel as if they had only happened yesterday.

''I think of Scott every day,'' Mrs Bennet said.

''I see him every day in our two sons. He is always with us.''