Prince Harry in Afghanistan

[Andy McNab]

I received the following statement from the Ministry of Defence last week.

I am very disappointed that foreign websites have decided to run this story
without consulting us.  This is in stark contrast to the highly responsible
attitude that the whole of the UK print and broadcast media, along with a
small number from overseas, who have entered into an understanding with us
over the coverage of Prince Harry on operations.  After a lengthy period of
discussion between the MOD and the Editors of regional, national and
international media, the Editors took the commendable attitude to restrain
their coverage.  I would like to thank them for that and I do appreciate
that once the story was in the public domain, they had no choice but to
follow suit.

What the last two months have shown is that it is perfectly possible for
Prince Harry to be employed just the same as other Army officers of his rank
and experience.  His conduct on operations in Afghanistan has been
exemplary.  He has been fully involved in operations and has run the same
risks as everyone else in his Battlegroup.  In common with all of his
generation in the Army today, he is a credit to the nation.  In deciding to
deploy him to Afghanistan, it was my judgement that with an understanding
with the media not to broadcast his whereabouts, the risk in doing was
manageable.  Now that the story is in the public domain, the Chief of
Defence Staff and I will take advice from the operational commanders about
whether his deployment can continue.  I now appeal to the media to restrain
from attempting to report Prince Harry’s every move and return to our
understanding.

Q: What has Harry been doing?

A: Prince Harry deployed to Afghanistan just before Christmas to join the
Household Cavalry Regiment Battlegroup operating in Helmand province as part
of Task Force Helmand.  He has been employed as a Joint Tactical Air
Controller (JTAC).  JTACs are responsible for the movement of aircraft
within their areas of responsibility.  This responsibility ranges from the
safe movement of helicopters delivering supplies through surveillance
operations to calling for, or clearing the use of, air delivered munitions
in support of ground forces.  JTAC operations can be undertaken from HQ
locations within Forward Operating Bases and from field locations.  The JTAC
role is entirely appropriate for an officer of Prince Harry’s experience and
seniority and one for which he successfully completed the necessary
training.

Q: Have Taliban been killed as a result of Harry’s work?

A: He has been part of a communication chain that has relayed the necessary
information to aircrews tasked with providing air support to troops on the
ground. We are unable to confirm whether there will have been Taliban
casualties.

Q: Have any civilians been killed in the action in which PH was involved?

A: No.

Q: Where is Harry now?

A: Harry has been deployed at a number of locations in Southern Helmand. He
is now serving at a different location in Helmand from that currently being
shown, though for obvious reasons we are not prepared to give further
details.

Q: Will Harry now be pulled out of Helmand?

A: As the CGS said, the chain of command is considering this matter and will
decide in due course.

[DeadLetterBox]

Damn shame the story got out. I wish he could have stayed longer. Must be a drag for him to leave early. Can imagin how he must be feeling about it!
Hope he will be redeployed soon.

[Tin-Tin]

yer he'll get deployed again but we'll only here bout it when he comes back home

[Lynn]

Q: Have Taliban been killed as a result of Harry’s work?

A: He has been part of a communication chain that has relayed the necessary
information to aircrews tasked with providing air support to troops on the
ground. We are unable to confirm whether there will have been Taliban
casualties.

Q: Have any civilians been killed in the action in which PH was involved?

A: No.

God forbid Prince Harry will be related to any killing. How it reminds of writing the Boy Soldiers series... Andy McNab saying: "The only restriction from the publishers was that the hero couldn't kill anyone" (source Book Talk - Reuters 2006) ;-)

[Pete]

As soon as the media said that he had joined the army it should have been fairly obvias that they would piss about and tell the world when he would be out there. What they should have done is keep there moths shut and let him live his life, yes he is roalty but he still deserves to have a life of his own away from the media.

[blackdragon]

It seems the Drive-By Media,doesn't care about the Military. They say they support the troops,but not the war. That's like saying they support the Police,but not the enforcement of the law.

[SAS McBride]

[quote="Pete"]As soon as the media said that he had joined the army it should have been fairly obvias that they would piss about and tell the world when he would be out there. What they should have done is keep there moths shut and let him live his life, yes he is roalty but he still deserves to have a life of his own away from the media.[/quote]

Yes thats very true they should have agreed not to report on his where abouts (until he was safely back home again) and stuck to it - but the sad reality is the media dont have enuf brain cells to figure this stuff out for themselves....I cant belive they have reported his posting details while he was serving in afgahn.
But then again the media seem to report what they like nowadays

[Pete]

Yeah they don't care who it's about as long as it's a good story look at his mum, there still dragging up the past! and for what? We all remember her and what wounderful work she done but fucking give it a break! Still it's good to know harry's still able to go out and fight taht's the main thing and Will's he's going off to meet the speical forces I heard? do you know what that's about?

[SAS McBride]

Will's meeting the SFs? yeah i read about this...id love to tell you about it but im afraid i would have to kill you afterwards lol.

I think hes on some sort of recce exercise to familiarize himself with how all the branches of the armed forces work....lol when you said that i thought he was gonna be joining the SAS

[Pete]

I doubt he would lol no yeah it's kinda cool i envy him, although there are people that do courses where you do the training like the SAS, there fun. So he's branching out? i wounder why he's doing all the Armed forces? still if he where our king of england at least he could say he understands what go's on in the difrent forces.