The Royal Firm

Military parades and troop reviews were all part of growing up for William and Harry.

Given their family’s long tradition of military service, it’s not surprising that William and Harry decided to pursue military careers before taking on full-time royal duties. Their father, Prince Charles, served in the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force and their uncle, Prince Andrew, served as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the 1980s Falklands War. From a young age, both boys grew up attending military functions with their parents, so the military was always a strong influence in their lives. While William and Harry’s military roles are quite different, both brothers share a strong dedication to duty and pride in their service.

William (known in the Royal Air Force as Flight Lieutenant Wales) serves as a search and rescue (SAR) helicopter pilot based in Anglesey, Wales. Working 24-hour shifts in a state of constant readiness, William must remain no more than 60 seconds from his Sea King helicopter at any time.  After short stints with the Royal Marines and Royal Navy, William returned to the RAF and graduated as a fully operational search and rescue pilot (SAR) in September 2010. After extensive training and a deployment to the Falkland Islands for six months in 2012, William qualified to be the pilot in charge of a Sea King Mark 3 helicopter. According to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s website, “SAR aircrews expect to fly into conditions from which others are fleeing, meaning they often find themselves flying in high gales or through clouds, driving rain and poor visibility”.

Flight Lt. Wales is part of a four man SAR crew. Each crew member is required to keep their training current, which may include taking computer-based courses.

During his time in Anglesey, news about William’s involvement in many dramatic rescues has been leaked to the press. One of the rescues William’s RAF crew participated in was the rescue of a 16-year old girl who had been swept out to sea in August 2012. The paramedic on William’s crew, Master Aircrew “Harry” Harrison, said, “We never know what we’ll face when we’re called out. Sometimes it’s just a twisted ankle or a broken bone, but this was one rescue where we truly did arrive in the nick of time and managed to save this young girl’s life.”  It took William and his crew only 38 seconds to reach the girl after receiving the call.

Not all of the rescues in end as happily. On New Year’s Day 2013, William and the crew were called to help locate a 41-year old Blackpool man who was swept to sea while out walking his dog. The RAF team provided the lighting necessary for the search teams to search the waters off the coast for over 90 minutes, but sadly the missing man was not found.

William gives his grandparents, the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, a tour during their Royal visit to RAF Valley in April 2011.

As the stories about William’s SAR team emerge, the press has admiringly dubbed William “the U.K.’s number one action man”. Other comparisons point to the centuries-old myth of the hero king, an adventurer of royal lineage who performs legendary feats on perilous quests, such as King Arthur.

For his part, William doesn’t seem to take such comparisons seriously. “The skills the guys employ, the flying aspects, the general airmanship you need to have around you, and all the others you need to survive the weather and whatever sort of situation you are thrown into…it’s definitely advanced flying and it’s rewarding, so put the two together and it’s a fantastic job,” William said in an April 2012 interview.

He continued, “It’s rewarding because every day you come in to work and you don’t quite know what’s going to happen. It’s quite exciting in that sense, it’s unpredictable. But at the same time it’s great that you get to go out and actually save someone’s life hopefully or at least make a difference to somebody. When you know that they are in trouble, you do everything you can to get there.”

A young Prince Harry at the helm of a tank in 1993.

While the press has been quick to reveal the details of William’s involvement in rescues, elements of Harry’s two tours of service with the British Army in Afghanistan are only beginning to emerge.

During Harry’s first tour of Afghanistan in 2008, he served as part of the ground forces, calling in airstrikes against enemy positions. In preparation for his second tour, Harry (or Captain Wales) had completed extensive specialized training to return as a gunner for Apache attack helicopters. This training allowed Harry to participate in regular missions during his 20-week tour with the 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps unit. Harry’s role during these missions over Helmand Province was to control the helicopter’s arsenal of deadly rockets, missiles and a 30mm cannon.

In an interview prior to returning to the U.K. in January 2013, this question asked by one journalist raised a furor: “You are the man with the trigger in your hand, and if called upon, you will fire, and presumably you have and you will kill the enemy?”

Prince Harry on patrol during his first tour in Afghanistan in 2008. Harry’s performance during the deployment earned him praise from the head of the British Army and (then) Prime Minister Gordon Brown as “exemplary”.

Answering with the confidence of an experienced combat veteran, Harry responded, “Yeah, so lots of people have. The squadron’s been out here. Everyone’s fired a certain amount. Probably a little bit more than this time last year, to a certain extent, but that’s just the way that it’s balanced out.” After a moment of reflection, Harry continued, “We fire when we have to, take a life to save a life, but essentially we’re more of a deterrent than anything else.”

He continued to say that killing insurgents was not what motivated him to become an attack helicopter pilot. Instead, Harry’s ambition was to return to combat duty in Afghanistan and “carry on with a job”.  In his role as a helicopter pilot, his job was to defend escorts traveling through the countryside, destroy known Taliban strongholds and rescue wounded soldiers. “If guys get injured, we come straight into the overhead, box off any possibility of an insurgent attack because they look at us and go, ‘Right, that’s an unfair fight, we’re not going to go near them’.”  Using the helicopter as an instrument of intimidation, Harry said his job was to make an impact on the enemy, which is not always about pulling the trigger.

Prince Harry is joined by his father Prince Charles upon his graduation in February 2012 as an Apache helicopter pilot. Harry won a prize for “best co-pilot gunner” out of the graduating pool of 20 other pilots.

As second in line to throne, William has been told he will not serve in active duty combat because it is viewed by many in the government as too dangerous. But Harry feels that William could do a similar job in Afghanistan, flying Chinook helicopters with emergency medical crews on board to pick up casualties. “Yes, you get shot at. But if the guys who are doing the same job as us are being shot at on the ground, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with us being shot at as well. People back home will have issues with that, but we’re not special. The guys out there are.  Simple as that.”

While Harry says William is jealous of his combat experience, Harry admits to feelings of envy over William’s role. “It’s operational flying back home. You get all the luxuries of operational flying – the pride, as you call it – and the reward of basically in his case saving people’s lives, which is exactly what we try to do as well. And back home he gets to go home to his wife and dog, whereas out here we don’t. We’re stuck playing PlayStation in a tent full of men.”

Prince Harry enjoys some down time playing video games with his fellow Apache helicopter crew members.

Indeed, while on duty, the royal brothers receive no special treatment from their colleagues. In fact, it seems that William and Harry relish that their work colleagues treat them like everyone else. Both live in simple accommodations alongside the other members of their units and are responsible for everyday tasks like making their own beds and fetching tea. Both servicemen spend downtime on the job playing computer games, usually with a military theme, such as Call of Duty. Meals are taken with their work colleagues in the base mess hall. Harry describes the atmosphere as “as normal as it’s going to get” for him since he’s treated as “one of the guys”.

While their experiences in the armed services are very different, both brothers obviously take immense pride in serving their country and especially their Queen, even more so since their Queen is their beloved grandmother. Reflecting on his and William’s military service, Harry said, “Our service towards our country in the military will always come first”.

Harry relishes the freedom of being a helicopter pilot. “Probably the fact that you an only fit a certain amount of people in a helicopter, therefore no one can follow us – like you guys,” he joked with the press. “Our father flew, our uncle’s flown, all sorts of people have flown in my family. And I wouldn’t suggest that’s where it’s come from, but it is great fun, and I was given the opportunity, and, in the end, I couldn’t say no to it.”