Samantha Roberts, the dead man's widow, campaigned to find out the truth about his death and called for an apology from Mr Hoon for the "unfillable void" it left in her life.
Before yesterday's hearing in Oxford, she said: "I'm just going to go with an open mind and see what happens."
Initially it had been believed that Sgt Roberts had been shot by an Iraqi who had been throwing stones at him.
But a later investigation revealed he was hit by a gunner in a Challenger tank 20 yards away, who was unaware that the L94 machinegun he used was known to be inaccurate at short range.