That Prince Harry Interview And The Boredom Of War
PRINCE Harry is in conversatison from the trenches. Says the Times:
“Prince Harry explained life on the frontline from the forward Operating Base, Delhi, Afghanistan on January 1, 2008”:
How are you finding Delhi?
“Delhi is fantastic, I started off with a week in Dwyer, flew from Kandahar to Dwyer, spent a week in Dwyer and then asked the Commanding Officer if I could come down here and spend Christmas with the Gurkhas because I had spent some time with them in England on exercise on Salisbury.
“Everyone is really well looked-after here by the Gurkhas, the food is fantastic – goat curries, chicken curries – probably shouldn’t say goat curries, but yeah, it’s really good fun and, yeah, we’re really well looked after.”
You said before you came out that you were very keen to get out on patrol. Were you surprised to be so far forward so soon?
“Em, yeah, I suppose so. I was always hoping to get forward, the Commanding Officer was very cool about it and said ‘yes, …. I want you to go’ and obviously Mark the OC down here was willing to take that responsibility.
“I got here on Christmas Eve and going from bullet magnet to anti-bullet magnet, most of the guys were pretty bummed that I was here because nothing was happening for the first few days that I was here but things are picking up again now because it’s obviously quite boring when nothing is happening.”
Not your typical Christmas though
“No, not your typical Christmas but Christmas is over-rated anyway.”
What was going through your head when they said you were coming down to Delhi? Obviously it has got a bit of a reputation for being right on the front line?
“Yes, it has but when you know you are with the Gurkhas I think there’s no safer place to be really.
“They’re all armed with kukris so if they run out of ammunition they will charge you with their massive swords as the enemy call them, I think the enemy thought they were Chinese at one point.
“But yes … it’s hard for anyone to understand, especially if you’ve been out here for three months already, is the fact that, yes you can be up at Dwyer safe and sound but it just drags on when nothing is going on and it’s so boring…
Is it very different doing it in anger in the field than it has been doing your job in exercises?
“Yeah, it is slightly different. A lot of the time the guys are engaging invisible firing points because the Taliban are so good at hiding in their trenches
“It is somewhat like what I can imagine World War Two to be like, as you saw on JTAC Hill it’s just no man’s land, they pop up their heads, they poke their heads up and that’s it.
“If the guys are coming under a lot of fire then I call the air in and as soon as the air comes up they disappear and just jump down these holes or go into their bunkers.
“So it’s a very strange reality, really.”
As a soldier this is what it’s all about isn’t it?
“Yeah, this is what it is all about, what it’s all about is being here with the guys rather than being in a room with a bunch of officers.
“I’m in here with all the guys, most of them are artillery guys basically doing a swap over with the other ones on JTAC Hill, staging on staging off, doing a week because it’s quite a lot of graft up there, supposedly.
“It’s good fun to be with just a normal bunch of guys, listening to their problems, listening to what they think.
“And especially getting through every day … it’s not painful to be here, but you are doing a job and to be with such fantastic people, the Gurkhas and the guys I’m sharing my room with, well our room with, makes it all worthwhile.”
For a member of the Royal Family this is a unique level of engagement isn’t it, in military terms?
“You could say that, I’m not too sure, my history is pretty rubbish.
“Yeah … I suppose it is but, at the end of the day, as I keep on going on about, it’s very nice to be a normal person for once, I think this is about as normal as I’m ever going to get…
Has there been any limitation put on what you can do because of your background, your position?
“No, not at all… as I said earlier I was expecting there to be some sort of limitation, I didn’t know what I was going to be allowed to do.
“As I said I was hoping to come down here for Christmas Day to be with the Gurkhas, I don’t know why it was just something I wanted to do, just to be with them, they don’t really celebrate Christmas that much but we had some fantastic games which we played in the yard there…
So this has compensated for any disappointment you may have had over Iraq?
“Yes you could say that. It’s a completely, it’s totally different thing.
“The Commanding Officer was very clever about it. The main problem with being a troop leader and putting so many guys under risk in Iraq, now I’ve come out here I think it has proved the point that if it’s done the right way and kept quiet in certain areas then it can be done and as far as I’m concerned I’m out here as a normal JTAC on the ground and not Prince Harry.”
Do you think there is any sense in which your deployment has put at risk the people you are serving alongside?
“Not at all. I’ve been mocked… We have a good laugh every day and Mark blows smoke up my ass by saying that the Gurkhas love it, love the fact that I’m down here, especially with this company because my father is the Colonel-in-Chief. I hope I’ve got that right.
“They think it’s fantastic and I love them because they just make me laugh so much and we’ve been having a really good time.”
Since you’ve been out here, have you had much contact with anybody back home?
“Yep. Contactwise back home, everyone gets given their an Iridium, not Iridium, Paradigm card. … You get 30 minutes a week or something, which isn’t great, but I think it was over the Christmas week everyone was given 15 extra minutes which was very nice and there was a rumour about The Sun giving an extra 10 minutes. I refuse to accept those 10 minutes (laughs).
“But, all the guys, everyone’s on the phone the whole time, I try and ring home and ring the necessary people whenever I can, once a week maybe, otherwise you just run out of minutes.”
They must be quite worried about you back home?
“No I don’t think so, no one really knows where I am and I prefer to keep it that way for the meantime until I get back in one piece and then I can tell them where I was.
“At the moment I think they think I’m tucked away, wrapped up in cotton wool.”
Your brother is presumably going to be rather jealous of you when he finds out.
“Well, he does know where I am. He’s jealous anyway because I’m a JTAC and it’s one of the best jobs in the army. I think there’s a lot of people who disagree with that but I think there’s a lot of people who would agree, mainly the JTACs.
“But yes, I don’t know, I don’t think he’ll be jealous, he’s a little bit upset that he can’t come out here and I can but I’m sure he’ll have his time whether it’s in a plane or in a helicopter … aircraft sorry, jet.”
You seem to have quite a lot of banter on the radio.
“Yes, it’s important to have banter especially when it’s UHF line of sight and no-one else can listen to it.
“It’s just me and him having a good banter and obviously when the aircraft come in, as I said earlier, you know you’ve got them on task for three, three-and-a-half hours and you’re looking for possibly one or two enemy digging a trench, it can get quite tiring and if you’re just talking ‘yep, go to this point’ and just put the radio down and staring at the screen it just sends you insane.
“So, yeah, I think, it’s good to be relaxed on the net and have a good chat but when, you know, things are pretty hairy then you need to obviously turn your game face on and do the job.”
The guys at Dwyer said to ask you about your chats with Harrier pilots in particular.
“Yes, well it was quite an entertaining evening, that’s all I’m going to say on that one. (Laughs) Sorry to disappoint you.”
It must be quite nice being in a position where people don’t recognise who you are?
“Yes it is, it’s fantastic. I’m still a little bit conscious about the fact that if I show my face too much, in and around the area – luckily there’s no civilians around here because as I said it’s sort of a little no-man’s-land….
“So, yeah, the Gurkhas think it’s hysterical how I’m called the bullet magnet, but they’ve yet to see why, so they’re a little bit upset about that.”
When you are on the net, though, as Widow Six Seven, you’re talking to all these people out there. They’ve no idea who they’re talking to?
“Well, supposedly not. I always have suspicions that there’s one particular call sign that I was speaking to this morning, has got a rough idea, either that or we just get on really well.
“It is slightly strange, speaking to most of the pilots, you never know who you’re going to get. Sometimes their call signs change from the difference between Vapour Four One to Vapour Four Three. You know it’s going to be a Brit pilot. Once they’re in the air you have a fantastic chat with them.
“This ‘Wizard’ call sign I’ve had something like five days in a row now and if he hasn’t worked it out, I’m sure he doesn’t care anyway, but if he hasn’t worked it out I’m sure when he gets back home if he sees this, he’ll wet himself – especially after the poster that he showed me from 30,000 ft this morning.”
Talk us through what happened up on JTAC Hill today.
“Normally I would do it from back here but obviously we went on patrol, just a normal routine patrol, just to show our presence basically and say hello to the ANP.
“We didn’t get much of a chance to do that because it was too busy.
“Back on to JTAC Hill and, eh, as I think Mark, the OC, said, there’s normally four to five, maybe seven or eight contacts a day, especially until about a month ago or two weeks ago, that’s definitely what it was.
“It has got very cold recently so the engagements have sort of subsided.
“However my job is to get ‘air’ up, whether I have been tasked it a day before or on the day or, as I say, when troops are in contact or something like that.
“And then air is tasked to me, they check in to me when they come into the ROZ (Restricted Operating Zone), and then I’m basically responsible for that aircraft, making sure it doesn’t get taken out by a 105 shell, it’s quite a big sky but knowing my luck it’s very possible to happen unless I keep on top of it.
“And then basically they use their pod, with all the imagery, which is obviously linked in to me and together we just look around with a TV screen and search the area for any movement at all … any enemy being seen and try and get some sort of pattern of life.
“Because we know that they are being funded by someone somewhere, possibly further down south, around the Pakistan border and ammunition and weapons are always being delivered by mopeds, so if we see a moped we follow that to a building and focus in around that building and if we see guys leaving with weapons going to a fire point engaging JTAC (Hill) then going back to that building, well that all links in and you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.”
Is it difficult?
“Well I suppose bits of it are difficult. Sitting in that room looking at the Rover Terminal screen any JTAC will tell you it’s a piece of piss really, it’s when you’re on the ground carrying all the kit and then you come under contact, you’ve got to type in the password if your computer is not on already, you flip it open, get on the radio, get the jets in and, yeah, you almost become like a bit of an air traffic controller. You’ve got jets flying all over the place and you’re trying to control them while looking at the screen, while trying to show a presence of force with your jets to get the enemy to go to cover and to keep your guys in one piece and keep safe basically.
“From a JTAC point of view it’s a lot easier being in that room than it is for the guys up north on the ground, running around with all the kit, being shot at.”
You seem to have got a bit of a taste for this. Can you see yourself still doing this in five years, ten years?
“Well I don’t know, I’ll see what the demand for me is. As any JTAC …as I said, we are being pulled left right and centre, within any brigade there’s not enough JTACs and more and more are being pushed through courses back at JFACSU in England.
“If I’m not needed and we leave Afghanistan, then I wouldn’t see myself carrying on.
“But yeah, it’s a job worthwhile. You’re responsible for so many things: case-vacing injured guys, getting water, food in and making sure that gets in safely and out safely because obviously something like a Chinook is a big target and obviously you are talking to multinationals … you’ve got the French, the Danes, the English – Brits, sorry – and the Americans. You’ve got all sorts.
“Yeah, it’s a really good job, and I think if you spoke to the soldiers I think they are very happy to have JTACs with them if they do have them.”
But you wouldn’t see yourself going back to Afghanistan again necessarily?
“Well, who knows. If someone needs me, I don’t really know what to say, if someone wants me then yeah I’ll definitely consider it unless I’m ordered to go in which (case) I’ll have to go.”
The tabloids have been gunning for you for a while. Do you think this experience in Afghanistan is going to change how you’re regarded back at home?
“Who knows, they’ve got their own opinions, they’re entitled to their own opinions and I just keep on doing what I’m doing.”
What are you missing?
“What am I missing the most, I should have thought about that before this started. Em, I don’t know actually. Nothing really, it’s bizarre, I’m out here now, haven’t really had a shower for four days, haven’t washed my clothes for a week and everything seems completely normal.
“So, yeah, I honestly don’t know what I miss at all. Music, we’ve got music.
We’ve got light, we’ve got food, we’ve got drink.
“No, I don’t miss booze, if that’s the next question. It’s nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking in as one of the lads.”
We’ve heard about this idea of deconfliction. There’s a lot of responsibility, do you feel that weigh on you?
“Deconfliction with the aircraft?”
Yes. The fact that you’re there partly to prevent blue-on-blue.
“Yes, you’re there to prevent blue-on-blue with bombs being dropped on or near friendlies, you are also responsible for not dropping bombs, if you have to, on the wrong people. Obviously the rules of engagement are very strict, especially on the British [side] – not: unlike the Americans, but it’s different.
“There is a lot of deconfliction, there is a lot of pressure on all the JTACs, there’s a lot of pressure on all the soldiers as well for numerous reasons.
“No one wants to engage someone for the wrong reasons. If someone shoots at you then you’re entitled to shoot back.
“All I would say is if any of the guys at all: Gurkhas, Brit soldiers, anybody anywhere in Afghanistan, if they’re under contact and there’s a JTAC there, I think any JTAC there would say that they will do their utmost best to make sure that those guys, every single one of them, gets out in one piece.
“If you have to do what you have to do in order to succeed in getting your guys out in one piece that’s the way it has to be.”
Finally, how would you sum up what it means to you to be able to come out here and do what you’ve trained to do?
“I don’t think there’s any words to describe it. It’s just really nice to be out here.
“I’ve only been out here for a short time, I hope to be out here for a lot longer and go through it with everybody else.
“It’s nice to see what it’s all like. My father’s very keen on me reporting back as the mole so that he’s got his ends tied up.
“As I say, it’s much better being out here experiencing it rather than hearing all the stories of people coming back and once I did the JTAC course I didn’t see much point in sitting back in England because once you’ve done the course you are supposedly an asset, I hope I am an asset rather than a nause [slang for nuisance].”
Posted: 29th, February 2008 | In: Royal Family Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
