These dilemmas are the moments when the editorial executives are supposed to earn their money. One way The Sun tried to draw the issue to the attention of its readers was to mock up one of the pictures on its front page, using the modelling services of a member of staff who had the misfortune of both sharing a name with and having a passing resemblance to the prince.
‘These are the pictures the palace don’t want you to see, but they have been mocked up by us to save Harry’s blushes.’ It was an opening shot from the country’s biggest-selling newspaper and certainly did the trick of highlighting just how absurd it was for the palace to stop the media in the UK from publishing the pictures.
A day later, The Sun finally gave in to temptation and splashed the real pictures across its pages. While the palace, and Harry for that matter, were deeply disappointed by the decision, they refrained from issuing a formal complaint. In reality they judged that they couldn’t be seen complaining about the public seeing pictures that were already freely available and clearly showed the prince in, shall we say, rather an ‘un-Royal’ series of poses.
The media team batted away all questions about Harry’s behaviour with the simple ‘no comment’ response. But privately they defended the prince, stressing that he was entitled to let his hair down, not least because of his impending deployment to Afghanistan. And, in reality, this is how the vast majority of the British public felt.
‘It’s just Harry being Harry,’ was the overriding reaction when people saw the pictures. Once again the popularity of the Teflon Royal, the prince who can do nothing wrong in so many people’s eyes, won through. Even among Americans Harry’s behaviour while visiting their country didn’t seem to cause any offence. He was, after all, the prince famed for his love of partying and it wasn’t as if any of the women who undoubtedly egged on their famous host that night were complaining.
Of all his high-profile misdemeanours, the naked pool pictures were perhaps the least controversial. His Nazi gaffe was a serious blunder for which he took the rap. The ‘Paki’ row led people to question his maturity, but because the story emerged a full three years after the comments were made, it never really caused any lasting damage. His night in Vegas at least proved there was one member of the Royal family who still liked to let his hair down in style.
At the time when Harry was once again on the front pages for all the wrong reasons, his brother and new bride Kate had faded into the background, seemingly focused on a life out of the spotlight. If it were not for the fact that Harry deflected attention away from his older brother, there is every chance William and Kate would have been put under pressure to face the public. After getting married in front of two billion TV viewers, they had settled back into a relatively peaceful existence, only undertaking a minimal number of official engagements. Behind closed doors, William’s reluctance to give up his job as a helicopter pilot was prompting concerns about the workload being placed on the Queen and other senior Royals.
It was fitting that when Harry finally broke his silence about the Vegas trip, he chose to allude to the impact it might have had on the rest of his family. Speaking several months after the story, he said: ‘At the end of the day I probably let myself down and members of my family down.’ But he went on to reveal more about how he sees himself when he added: ‘It was probably a classic example of me being too much Army, and not enough prince – it’s as simple as that.’
This was one of the best examples of how Harry tries to compartmentalize his life, his way of dealing with being a Royal and a human being. In uniform, he was an officer, a soldier in charge of men and subordinate to his superiors. While surrounded by his fellow soldiers he was Captain Wales, one of the guys and a popular member of the team. When he is on Royal duties he is Prince Harry – grandson of the Queen and son of the heir to the throne. It is remarkable how he manages to pull this dual role off, but in reality it’s something he has been doing all his life.
At Eton College he rarely acted like a prince. He played the fool most of the time and gravitated towards the less academic members of his class. When enjoying private time with his mother, he was simply Harry the son, enjoying jokes and fun time with the mother he adored. It was only when he stepped out with his parents on official engagements that the young Harry became a prince, the rest of the time he would try and be normal. This trait is shared to some extent by his brother William. When the pair of them are together, they are not Royals, they are buddies who have each other’s back. Ever since William’s marriage, the bond between the brothers has remained strong because they offer each other a release from the daily grind of being princes. But this desire to pigeon-hole different aspects of his life will always be a problem for Harry. When the drinks are flowing, when thoughts of his Royal status are washed away by the alcohol, there is always a risk he will get himself the wrong type of publicity.
Harry, like it or not, is a prince first and foremost. His role in the Army was second to that – even when the cries of ‘naked bar’ went up.
CHAPTER 21
THE WARRIOR PRINCE RETURNS
As night fell over the vast British and American military base deep in the Afghan desert, everything seemed as usual. The cloudless skies above Camp Bastion were lit by the brilliant stars as the thousands of servicemen and women readied themselves to bed down.
It was a Friday night, but life inside the dry base was a world away from the bustling high streets of the garrison towns back home. Outside the NAAFI in the British section of the camp, a handful of troops in their military fatigues tucked into piping hot pizzas and smoked cigarettes. Elsewhere the rows of tents and shelters that the soldiers called home were filled with the usual mix of Bastion’s residents relaxing and killing time.
One of the camp’s newest residents, Captain Wales, was already fast asleep in readiness for the following day’s twelve-hour shift. He had only recently arrived in what was now a makeshift city, ready for twenty weeks as a gunner on an attack helicopter.
Everything seemed normal; it was just another night in the smooth-running hub deep in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. Suddenly and without warning the tranquillity was shattered by a huge explosion. As people rushed outside to see what was happening, the sky was bright orange as flames gushed towards the stars above. The eruption seemed to be coming from the American side of Bastion, but it was immediately clear this was not normal.
In the confusion that followed, the air was filled with the tell-tale crack of small arms fire as it began to dawn on the troops the camp was under attack. Bastion’s eight square miles are well protected. Its location far away from any other life meant any unexpected movement outside the wire was easy to spot. The fortified defences that scanned the entire perimeter were manned round the clock by British and American soldiers. And the perimeter of the base was constantly patrolled by heavily armed units, ensuring the safety of the 30,000-plus military personnel inside.
The attack was as audacious as it was carefully planned. In the weeks before, a group of insurgent fighters had posed as farmers tending a crop of poppies that flanked the northern end of Bastion. Their disguises had allowed them to pinpoint weaknesses in the camp’s security, and when the moment was right, they donned stolen US uniforms and strolled inside the perimeter unchallenged.
The suicidal mission was one of the most serious breaches of security at Bastion since it had first sprung from the desert in 2006. By the time fourteen of the insurgents and been killed and the fifteenth captured, two US marines were dead and eight other soldiers injured. Catching their target off guard, the raiders had also fired rocket-propelled grenades at aircraft parked nearby, destroying no fewer than six $30 million Harrier jump jets before they were eventually shot dead.
Prince Harry, it was claimed, slept through the battle in his quarters more than a mile away on the other side of Bastion. But inevitably, when the news broke back home, questions were being asked as to whether this carefully coordinated attack had been sparked by the Royal’s ar
rival back in Afghanistan.
Unlike his first deployment in 2007, Harry’s return to the badlands had been well publicized in advance. Because he would this time serve as an Apache attack helicopter pilot, it was felt there was no need for the repeat of the media blackout that marked his first tour of duty. Even if the British press could have been persuaded to another blackout – which was ruled out as impossible – any increased threat to other troops was deemed far smaller than before. From the cockpit of his awesome £46 million ‘flying tank’, the Royal would be safely away from the insurgents he had faced while serving as a foot soldier the previous time. So it was with some angst that senior commanders deflected the ‘Harry’ line away from the September raid on Bastion.
Of course for their part the Taliban propagandists were keen to claim it was a targeted attack on the ‘Infidel Prince’. Four days earlier a spokesman named Zabiullah Mujahid had indeed told the press: ‘We have informed our commanders in Helmand to do whatever they can to eliminate him.’
But most military experts dismissed the claim as opportunism. The far more likely explanation for the events of that night lay in the insurgent reaction to a US video that had mocked the Islamic faith. Widespread anger at the film Innocence of Muslims had led to violent demonstrations outside Western embassies and attacks in Egypt that had claimed seven lives.
Even though common sense prevailed and very few people tried to link the attack to Harry’s presence at Bastion, this was not the start to his second tour of duty that the military top brass had hoped for. Ever since his abrupt removal from the war zone in 2008, Harry had dreamed of making this return.
Not known for his academic skills, Harry had amazed everyone by making the grade as one of the Army’s elite Apache pilots. He had trained for more than three years to earn the right to serve his country once more, and being back on duty in Afghanistan was the icing on the cake.
When Harry had first come up with the idea of switching regiments and training to be a pilot, he knew this was likely to be his only chance of returning to the action. But few people, least of all Harry, ever expected him to qualify to fly the Army Air Corps’s awesome killing machines. The Apaches are equipped with Hellfire missiles as well as deadly cannons, and just the sound of their signature engines in the skies high above is enough to send insurgent fighters into hiding.
Harry would be based at Bastion for the duration of his deployment. From there he would carry out missions high above the dust-ridden planes of Helmand Province. Despite their awesome reputation as one of the most advanced pieces of military kit, the Apaches’ primary role in Afghanistan was to save lives. They would be sent as air cover to provide ground troops with the vital support they needed in the event of them being engaged by the enemy. Nothing was more reassuring for troops on the ground than the sight of an Apache overhead. If they were being attacked, the Apache could easily pinpoint where the insurgents were firing from and wipe them out in seconds.
The other vital role the Apaches played was to escort other aircraft tasked with rescuing wounded troops on the ground. These so-called CASEVAC missions – short for casualty evacuation – undertaken by RAF Chinook teams made them a sitting target for rocket attacks. For his entire three-month stint, Harry would be ready to react at short notice to fly above the evacuation crews and ensure they were safe from enemy strikes.
Few of his fellow pilots had the same insight into what it was like for the troops on the ground in Afghanistan as Harry. His previous stint in the front line may have been brief, but it had given him a clear understanding of how important the air cover from the Apaches really was. Most of the other Army Air Corps pilots would have served with the regiment from the start and would probably never have been on the ground.
As he unpacked his kit and made himself at home in the relatively safer environment of Camp Bastion, Harry’s thoughts went back to his previous deployment. For the next three months there would doubtless be occasions when the adrenalin would be flowing and the buzz of being back at war would return. But this mission would – he knew – be so very different to the last.
When not on sorties, Harry would be stuck at Bastion killing time and thinking of home. His new girlfriend Cressida Bonas would only be an e-mail away, but this would not be like before. The long hours sitting around Bastion would be very dull. It was in a war zone, but life on the camp was relatively tame. Every mealtime Harry would walk over to the mess hall, a series of large domed tents from where hot, comforting food would be served up like meals at a school canteen. If he fancied a change, the prince could visit the camp’s own Pizza Hut branch or go and buy supplies from the well-stocked NAAFI.
This tame environment was a world away from what life was like outside the wire. In fact it would feel to someone with Harry’s experience more like a three-month stay at a Butlins holiday camp than a tour of duty. The other downside for the Royal was the fact that here he would be denied much of the anonymity he had so enjoyed while serving on the front line.
Every time he went to get his hair cut, or to have a coffee in the café run by a Norwegian couple, he would be gawped at by the troops. They all knew Harry was among their number, and spotting the third in line to the throne wandering about became a new pastime for soldiers bored to tears with being confined to the camp.
If he needed some respite, he would look to the servicemen and women that formed part of his unit. For every Apache pilot there was a substantial ground crew of engineers, as well as support staff tasked with keeping the helicopters in the air. By the side of the runway where the Apaches were based, the Army Air Corps unit had its own area where the crew would kill time. Besides dusty sofas there were games consoles, TVs and even makeshift internet cafés where the troops could while away the hours.
This mundane routine would not come close to the excitement of being in the thick of the action like last time. Instead of feasting on food cooked by his Gurkha comrades as before, Harry would stroll over to the cookhouse and fill his plate with burgers, steaks and bacon rolls. Was this really what he had spent so long training for, he must have wondered after just days at his new base.
A source who got to know Harry during his second deployment shed light on his tour. ‘Being based at Camp Bastion was by no means ideal for Prince Harry,’ he said. ‘In many ways it functions like a small town, there are always people coming and going. It is fair to say most people just got on with the fact he was there. But the novelty of having a Royal living among the troops was too much for some people to resist. On one occasion two girls from the RAF asked if they could have a picture with him but he refused. I think it actually made him quite angry, but he managed to be polite and walk away. It was a very different experience from his first deployment, when Harry really was out in the field, seen as just one of the guys. The people in his unit were briefed in advance not to treat him any differently and they respected that.
‘He avoided going to Leatherneck [the section of Camp Bastion occupied by the US forces] because he feared that if he was recognized the American troops would be less reserved than the Brits, and the last thing he would have wanted would be to be seen as some kind of celebrity soldier. Most of the time he stayed with his men from 662 Squadron and only ventured around at meal times, which must have been quite boring after a while. It was fine when he was on duty because the time went quicker, but during downtime there really isn’t that much to do in Bastion.
‘A lot of guys spend time in the NAAFI, which is basically a pub without alcohol, but Harry rarely went near the place. I suspect that was because he didn’t like being stared at or maybe he was worried soldiers might take his picture and try and sell it to the newspapers. Having spent so much time training to become a helicopter pilot, the tour must have seemed at times like a bit of a disappointment.’
The source’s comments explain the reasons why, in an interview released at the end of his tour, Harry surprised many people by saying that he ‘hated’ being stuck in Bastion. ‘My choice wo
uld have been back out on the ground with my regiment,’ he said. ‘That sounds quite spoilt when I’m standing in front of this thing – £45 million worth – but I think hopefully my friends and family back home know exactly what I’m talking about. It is a weird reality, being stuck in Bastion. For me, I hate it, being stuck here. I’d much rather be out with the lads in a PB [patrol base]. The last job was, for me personally, better. Obviously lots of guys like the luxury and comforts of Bastion, but what’s weird, as I said, is we’re stuck in Bastion and what’s going on out there is completely separate.
‘It is a pain in the arse being stuck in Bastion. Going into the cookhouse with hundreds of people – it’s frustrating. I go into the cookhouse and everyone has a good old gawp, and that’s one thing that I dislike about being here. Because there’s plenty of guys in there that have never met me, therefore look at me as Prince Harry and not as Captain Wales, which is frustrating. Which is probably another reason why I’d love to be out in the PBs, away from it all.’
The comments were surprisingly unguarded from Harry as he reflected on his two tours, not least because the British taxpayer had invested more than £1 million in his helicopter training since his first stint in Afghanistan. But they show how deeply he felt about being stared at, singled out from the rest of his comrades. This frustration has always been a constant in Harry’s life, and his love of the Army had initially been rooted in the fact that he could be anonymous.
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