Prince Harry will be treated like any other soldier and is proud to serve, palace spokesman says. Hos presence in Afghanistan is expected to boost the moral of the servicemen & women. “He will be in a difficult and demanding job,” a commander at Camp Bastion says.
Deployment
Prince Harry arrived in Afghanistan on Friday on a four-month military deployment in his role as an Apache helicopter pilot, Britain’s Ministry of Defense said.
Harry, the grandson of Queen Elizabeth II and third in line to the British throne, is a captain in Britain’s Army Air Corps. He will be stationed at dusty Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s southern Helmand province — considered a Taliban heartland — with the 100-strong 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps.
Prince Harry Insists He Be Treated Like Any Other Soldier
The austere conditions will be a far cry from the more luxurious lifestyle he enjoys when on leave in the United Kingdom — or on his widely covered trip to Las Vegas last month, where a scandal broke after he was photographed naked while partying in his hotel room on what turns out to have been a predeployment vacation.
Prince Harry served briefly in Afghanistan four years ago, but he was hurriedly withdrawn amid safety fears when news of his deployment to a small forward operating base leaked. The media are allowed to report on his deployment this time, although the timing of his arrival in Afghanistan was kept under wraps.
“He’s approached the deployment with a range of emotions like any other soldier and feels both pride and anticipation as he deploys for a job he’s trained for, for so long,” a St. James’s Palace spokesman said. “Prince Harry, like any soldier, considers it a great honor to represent his country in Her Majesty’s armed forces wherever it chooses to deploy him.”
The Military Reaction To The Prince
A palace source said the prince, who turns 28 this month, will be treated just the same as his fellow soldiers.
The queen and Prince Charles have been fully briefed on his deployment, the source said, adding that Charles was immensely proud of his son.
Harry qualified to fly an Apache helicopter in combat early this year, after doing some of his training over the deserts of Arizona and Nevada. He won an award as the best co-pilot gunner in his peer group during training.
The Camp Bastion complex, near the large U.S. Camp Leatherneck, is one of the busiest airfields in the world, with more than 28,000 people working on site, according to the UK Ministry of Defense. While stationed there, Prince Harry will be part of the Joint Aviation Group, which provides support to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and Afghan forces in the region.
His Duties
Capt. Jock Gordon, commander of the Joint Aviation Group, welcomed Prince Harry to Camp Bastion — and appealed for him to be allowed to get on with his job.
“Working together with his colleagues in the squadron, he will be in a difficult and demanding job, and I ask that he be left to get on with his duties and allowed to focus on delivering support to the coalition troops on the ground,” he said, in remarks quoted by the Press Association news agency.
The Ministry of Defense said Harry’s squadron would “provide surveillance, deterrence and, when required, close combat attack capabilities as well as escort duties for other aircraft.”
