Prince Harry says training to be Apache helicopter pilot was ‘biggest challenge’ he ever faced

Prince Harry said his military career “saved” him after the tragic death of his mother Princess Diana by helping him “turn his grief into purpose” after he revealed he killed 25 Taliban fighters.

The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex served in the army for 10 years in total, rising to the rank of captain and undertaking two tours of Afghanistan.

During the second tour, he spent four months as an Apache helicopter pilot, from September 2012 to January 2013.

Now, during his explosive revealing interview with 60 Minutes, which premiered on Sunday, the former royal called the role his “vocation” and said it “cured” him after the “shock” he experienced from the sudden loss of his mother. giving him a ‘purpose bigger than himself’.

The 38-year-old Duke of Sussex served in the army for 10 years in total, rising to the rank of captain and undertaking two tours of Afghanistan. He is seen in 2008.

During the second tour, he spent four months as an Apache helicopter pilot, from September 2012 to January 2013. He is seen in January 2013.

Now, during his explosive reveal interview with 60 Minutes, the former royal called the position his ‘vocation’ and said it ‘cured’ him after the ‘shock’ he experienced from the sudden loss of his mother. He and Diana see each other in 1987.

“My military career saved me in many ways,” he told host Anderson Cooper. “It took me out of the spotlight of the British press.

“I was able to focus on a purpose bigger than myself: wearing the same uniform as everyone else, feeling normal for the first time in my life, and accomplishing some of the biggest challenges I’ve ever had.”

Harry explained that he “didn’t get a pass for being a prince” and that he had to work just as hard as everyone else.

“There’s no Prince autopilot button that you can push and it just takes you away,” he quipped.

The 38-year-old added that he was a “very good candidate for the army” because he was a “young man in his early 20s” who “suffered from shock.”

He continued: “But then I was in the front seat of an Apache shooting it up, blowing it up, monitoring four radios simultaneously and being there to save and help anyone who was on the ground with a radio yelling, ‘We need support, we need air support.’ That was my calling. I felt healed of it strangely.

Although Harry joined the army in 2004, he said the war really started for him years earlier, when his mother tragically passed away after being in a car accident in 1997.

Harry (seen in 2008) explained that he “didn’t get a pass for being a prince” and that he had to work just as hard as everyone else.

The 38-year-old added that he was a “very good candidate for the army” because he was a “young man in his early 20s” who “suffered from shock.”

He said he began ‘living his life on adrenaline’ from the moment she died, spending years ‘fighting himself’ and the ‘British press’.

“I had a great deal of frustration and guilt towards the British press for their part in this,” he said.

“It was obvious to us as children – the British press part in our mother’s misery and I had a lot of anger inside of me that I thankfully never expressed to anyone.”

Harry’s admissions come just days after he revealed that he killed 25 people during his second tour.

He spoke about it in his memoirs, Spare, which premiered in Spain last week and will be released worldwide on January 10.

In the book, he wrote that “you can’t kill people if you see them as people” and said that he instead viewed them as “chess pieces removed from the board” or “bad guys removed”.

The prince was first posted to Helmand province as a forward air controller in 2007 after three years of training, but his first tour of duty was cut short when an Australian magazine mistakenly broke a media embargo.

However, he returned in 2012 with the Ministry of Defense publicizing his second deployment on the understanding that the media would allow him to continue the job at hand.

After learning to fly Apache helicopters, Harry was posted to Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan in 2012, where he stayed for 20 weeks.

During his 2012 tour, Harry helped provide helicopter support to the International Security Assistance Force and Afghan forces operating throughout Helmand province.

Although Harry (seen with Princess Anne in 2008) joined the army in 2004, he said the war really started for him years before, when his mother tragically passed away in 1997.

He said he began ‘living his life on adrenaline’ from the moment she died, spending years ‘fighting himself’ and the ‘British press’. He is seen in Afghanistan in 2008.

Harry’s admissions come just days after he revealed he killed 25 people during his second tour in his memoir, Spare. He is pictured above during his time in the military.

In the book, he wrote that “you can’t kill people if you see them as people” and said that he instead viewed them as “chess pieces removed from the board” or “bad guys removed”.

His comments were condemned as a “terrible mistake” by the grieving father of one of his comrades from Afghanistan, who committed suicide after returning home. Harry looks in 2009

Based at Camp Bastion, the 662 Squadron Army Air Corps, to which he belonged, flew over a hundred deliberate missions during 2,500 flight hours, providing surveillance, deterrence and, when required, close combat capabilities, as well as security tasks. escort for other aircraft. .

Admiral Lord West, former head of the Navy, told the sunday mirror after that the Invictus Games could be under threat of terrorist attacks after its admission.

“The Invictus Games are very tagged for him, so I would have thought the threat level would definitely be higher,” the Admiral said.

‘There will be serious security problems because of what he said. The Taliban will read it thinking there is a prince who calls us all chess pieces and is only too happy to kill us.

“And there will be a lot of people, I’m sure, in the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations, who will think that this is something that needs revenge.”

The Duke of Sussex is the founder of the Invictus Games, an international sports competition for wounded military veterans that launched in 2014.

His comments were also condemned as a “terrible mistake” by the grieving father of one of his comrades from Afghanistan, who committed suicide after returning home.

Derek Hunt, whose son Nathan served as a bomb disposal expert in Harry’s unit in 2008, said: “Many soldiers and veterans will find his comments about killing very upsetting, and perhaps [they] it can even cause some people to have flashbacks of their time in combat.