It's a revelation that makes you proud to be British.
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan for the last two and a half months. The British wanted to keep it a secret but a Yank website decided to reveal the enws.
It's always been Prince Harry's dream to serve on the frontline with the British Army and was dismayed in 2007 when he was told that he won't be sent to Afghanistan. But it seems like he finally got his wish....
Prince Harry has been secretly fighting in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, admits MoD
28th February 2008
Daily Mail
'I haven't had a shower for four days, it's freezing and there's no drink, but I don't miss anything'
'This gives me my best chance to be normal'
Prince was told by the Queen he would fight
'I would never want to put someone else's life in danger by being a bullet magnet'
Harry has been 'a credit to his nation', says general
Off duty: Prince Harry and his colleagues relax back at base
Prince Harry has been fighting the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today.
The 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer has spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in war-ravaged Helmand Province. He has already directed one bomb attack, dismissed fears that he will be a "bullet magnet", and sworn he does not miss anything.
The deployment had been cloaked in secrecy under a news blackout deal agreed across the UK media to prevent details reaching the Taliban and endangering Harry and his comrades. But the arrangement broke down today after news was leaked out on the US website the Drudge Report.
The Prince takes aim with a rifle in Afghanistan
Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for ten weeks, the MoD confirmed today
Australian magazine New Idea and German newspaper Bild also both broke the embargo on the news.
As part of the deal a group of journalists had visited the prince in Helmand on condition that details would only be publicised once he was safely back in the UK.
The deal was arranged after Harry's planned tour to Iraq last year had to be cancelled because of a security risk sparked by publicity.
Harry had sworn to quit the Army if he was not sent to fight
He later swore he would quit the Army if he was not allowed to fight.
Earlier this week a Royal Marine became the 89th British fatality in Afghanistan - the third killed there this year, and the second in one week.
The marine was trying to disrupt Taliban fighters in the southern province of Helmand when he was caught in a bomb blast.
The deaths followed a week of bomb explosions in southern Afghanistan, where the death toll from two days of suicide attacks rose to more than 140.
Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt, who is head of the British Army, said he was disappointed the news had leaked.
In a statement, he said: "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 of overseas outlets, 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 judgment 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."
After the disappointment over Iraq, when Harry was due to work as a Scimitar light tank troop leader, he retrained as a battlefield air controller known as a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) with a view to going to Afghanistan.
He flew out on December 14, two months into the current winter tour.
He spent several weeks working in Garmsir in the far south of Helmand Province, operating just 500m from front line Taliban positions.
He has since left Garmsir to work in another part of Helmand Province, details of which can not be reported for security reasons.
There is no immediate steer from the Ministry of Defence on the future of his deployment.
Harry had sworn to quit the Army if he was not sent to fight
The prince said his grandmother the Queen was the one who told him he would be sent to the front line.
She was a strong supporter of his desire to serve on the front line despite his position, he said. He said the monarch had been "relieved" when it was agreed he would finally be able to do the job he had trained to do.
dailymail.co.uk
*****************************************************
Harry in Afghanistan: 'I haven't had a shower in four days, it's freezing and there' s no drink - but I don't miss a thing'
28th February 2008
Daily Mail
Prince Harry with other British soldiers in Afghanistan
Buckingham Palace it definitely is not.
Far from the home comforts most of us would take for granted, Prince Harry tasted life on the front line in Afghanistan and found he was in his element.
“It's bizarre,” he said. “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.”
On his arrival in war-ravaged Helmand Province just before Christmas, he spent time on the ground at Forward Operating Bases Dwyer and Delhi in the far south of the province.
Even by military standards conditions were austere but, far from the palaces of his childhood, Harry remarked: “I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get.”
Prince Harry in Afghanistan
With nightly temperatures plunging to –8C when he arrived, there was no heating in sleeping areas, almost no running water in camp and little shelter from the elements.
At both outposts a row of angled pipes half-buried in the sand outdoors, affectionately named “desert roses”, serve as urinals.
The main toilets are the dreaded “thunderboxes” - plywood structures with a hole cut in the centre inside flimsy wooden cubicles.
At Fob Dwyer they have been aligned southward, enabling users – as the standard joke on camp goes – to “bare your ass to the enemy”.
Waste from the thunderboxes is collected in metal containers which are then filled with Kerosene and burnt, offering warmth if little else for those faced with the less-than-glamorous task.
Prince Harry passes a donkey while on patrol through the deserted town of Garmisir close to the his base, in Helmand province, Southern Afghanistan
At Dwyer the prospect of an extra £2-per-time is enough to guarantee a steady stream of volunteers for the job, while at Fob Delhi the same task is cheerfully carried out by the Gurkha troops currently manning the camp.
There, water shortages before the arrival of the annual rains meant showering and shaving had to be restricted to once every three days.
But morale was high and, despite the limitations, food at both camps was surprisingly good.
At Fob Dwyer a British cook works daily wonders with 10-man ration packs producing pasta, curries and mashed potato for hungry troops in a tented cookhouse dubbed “Hell Man's Kitchen”.
The Gurkha fare available at Fob Delhi is the envy of the Afghanistan theatre with regular chicken or goat curries on offer.
Many Gurkhas cook for themselves, buying live chickens and roosters from locals, slaughtering them with their distinctive machete-like kukri knives and rustling up curries on charcoal stoves in their sleeping quarters.
“What am I missing the most? Nothing really,” said Harry, sitting in his bed space at Fob Delhi.
“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 (non-alcoholic) drink.”
Clearly conscious of his tabloid image in the UK, he quickly added: “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.”
On arrival in Afghanistan, Harry was flown straight to Fob Dwyer, bypassing the relative comfort of the UK's main Camp Bastion base where troops can quell their homesickness by visiting a mobile Pizza Hut or have a non-alcoholic drink in something approximating a British pub.
Fob Dwyer is a dusty and isolated outpost in the middle of the desert about six miles from the front line.
There, soldiers sleep in crude bunker structures built from huge “Hescos”, blast-proof wire cages filled with rubble, topped with corrugated iron and sand bags.
The only real luxury is a television screen showing British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) output thanks to a satellite link.
A battery of Royal Artillery 105mm guns provide the main excitement when the order comes through for a fire mission to suppress Taliban attacks on frontline British positions at Fob Delhi, further forward.
Making-do is the order of the day. A simple tented chapel on camp uses empty cases from Javelin missiles as pews.
But while conditions are basic, Dwyer's remote location means it has been the target of attacks only a handful of times.
By contrast Fob Delhi, where Harry was sent within days of his arrival, sits right on the front line as the southernmost allied position in Helmand.
There, troops look out from trenches and bunkers across 500 yards of no-man's land to the Taliban frontline. The camp or its connected observation positions come under attack several times a day with rocket propelled grenades, mortar shells and machine gun fire.
One of the observation posts, JTAC Hill, is built on the remains of a 19th century fort, used by the British during a previous involvement in the seemingly perpetually war-torn country.
Another, codenamed Balaclava, sits a few hundred yards away on the edge of Garmsir.
Once the main trading and administrative centre for southern Helmand, Garmsir is now a virtual ghost town.
In its main bazaar area, shop after shop lies empty, abandoned by its population, fleeing from the fighting a year ago when the Taliban were driven out.
Its long main street has more than a passing resemblance to the ruins of Pompeii, with former shops, restaurants, a clinic and even a veterinary surgery now lying empty.
Clues about its former life as a thriving centre are everywhere. Smashed televisions spilling from the front of one group of shops bear witness to what were once electrical stores.
Odd trainers without their pairs are scattered across the dusty main street, from what was once a shoe shop at the corner. Afghan bank notes, blown around by the breeze, are everywhere.
The main regional highway stops at Balaclava, beyond that are the Taliban.
“This is the end of the road – in many ways really,” remarked Major Mark Milford of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Harry's direct boss at Delhi.
The camp itself is a bombed out former US-built agricultural college which has changed hands several times and was once a Taliban madrassa. Is this a safe place for a prince? Major Milford was asked.
“No, not really,” he replied in a matter-of-fact manner.
But Harry evidently loved it.
“Yes, it has (a reputation as being the front line) but when you know you are with the Gurkhas I think there's no safer place to be really,” he said.
In many ways everyday life at Delhi is even more basic than at Dwyer.
At Dwyer no-one is allowed to wash before 11am in winter – because what running water there is is still frozen.
At Delhi there is no running water. The “showers” are simply a bag hung up in an outdoor wooden cubicle.
Some hot water is available from a “Puffing Billy” – a mini boiler which heats a metal barrel into which the troops can sparingly dip a mortar case as a makeshift bucket. The rounded ends of missile cases are used as shaving bowls.
Harry shared a room with a constantly changing contingent of Royal Artillery soldiers, alternating between stints up on JTAC Hill and the camp itself.
“This is what it is all about,” he remarked.
“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, stagging on, stagging off, doing a week because it's quite a lot of graft up there.
“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 a room with, makes it all worthwhile.
“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.”
When David Baxter was sent to Afghanistan as a battlefield air controller he did not expect to be cracking jokes with the third-in-line to the throne.
But two months into his tour of duty in Helmand, the 28-year-old
non-commissioned officer found himself mentoring one of his regiment's youngest officers - Prince Harry.
The former tank driver from Bendooragh near Coleraine in Northern Ireland - who holds the rank of Corporal of Horse in the Household Cavalry Regiment - was sent to Afghanistan to work as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) in the autumn.
The crucially important job involves covert aerial surveillance of Taliban positions, co-ordinating planes and helicopters entering his area and - when necessary - calling in airstrikes.
He was initially part of a two-man team, working with a South African captain.
But when, having done back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan without a break, his work partner went home for some leave, Corporal Baxter was told he would be sent a newly trained FAC - Prince Harry.
“He's a really down-to-earth person,” he said.
“To be honest I don't think anyone thinks of him as third in line to the throne or anything, you just take him at face value as any other Household Cavalry officer.”
The prince, 23, was bitterly disappointed last year to be told that plans to send him to Iraq had been cancelled.
But, rather than leave the army, the prince retrained as an FAC last summer in order to go to Afghanistan - this time without any advance publicity.
The idea was that he would be sent as part of the two-man team attached to his battlegroup headquarters at Forward Operating Base Dwyer in the far south of Helmand.
Harry arrived at the base just before Christmas and quickly hit it off with Corporal Baxter.
They had not previously been close friends but the County Antrim man was well used to seeing the prince around as they are both part of the Household Cavalry - although Harry is in the Blues and Royals unit while Corporal Baxter serves with the Lifeguards.
“His arrival as far as I could tell was kept quite hush hush,” Corporal Baxter - who has been in the army nine-and-a-half years and served in Iraq and Kosovo as well as Afghanistan - explained.
“A lot of people didn't know he was coming out but he has fitted in really well. “Everyone from the Household Cavalry Regiment knows him, has worked with him for about a year or so now.
“We are used to having him about so it has not really been any change for us ... it has just been a surprise for those that are attached such as the gunners.
“They were initially surprised to see him ... but at the end of the day he is just treated the same as any other officer from the regiment.”
Although Harry's work saw him spend hours on end speaking with pilots from many countries over the radio, they knew him only by his call sign Widow Six Seven. Corporal Baxter was one of the few in on the secret.
“The first time he took over the net from his predecessor he was straight in there,” he explained.
“He's really confident and sounded like he had been there for quite a considerable amount of time.
“He has always got a rapport with the pilots that he's talking to, I'm sure they would be quite shocked as well if they knew who they were talking to.”
During long shifts in the battlegroup operations room, it was not long before the two red-heads were sharing jokes and laddish banter.
“He fixed my radio for me so he's a good guy to have on board despite being ginger and Irish,” red-headed Harry affectionately joked.
“It's a lethal mix.”
Despite the reason for the cancellation of the prince's Iraq tour Corporal Baxter was relaxed about the presence of his high-profile colleague.
“To be honest, it is something that I haven't really thought about myself, he's not out on patrol all the time and it's a question of whether any of the local nationals out here would recognise him, they don't have TV, they don't read newspapers. “If something was (written in the media) back in the UK it might change things. “But I don't think it could get any more dangerous than what it already is.” He added: “I think a lot of people are more happy for him, he was quite disappointed with the fact that he couldn't get out to Iraq. “For any soldier to be told that they can't go on tour for whatever reason is quite disappointing and most people are actually just glad to see that he has been able to do the job that he trained to do.”
dailymail.co.uk
The Ministry of Defence has admitted that Prince Harry has been fighting in Afghanistan for the last two and a half months. The British wanted to keep it a secret but a Yank website decided to reveal the enws.
It's always been Prince Harry's dream to serve on the frontline with the British Army and was dismayed in 2007 when he was told that he won't be sent to Afghanistan. But it seems like he finally got his wish....
Prince Harry has been secretly fighting in Afghanistan for 10 weeks, admits MoD
28th February 2008
Daily Mail
'I haven't had a shower for four days, it's freezing and there's no drink, but I don't miss anything'
'This gives me my best chance to be normal'
Prince was told by the Queen he would fight
'I would never want to put someone else's life in danger by being a bullet magnet'
Harry has been 'a credit to his nation', says general
Off duty: Prince Harry and his colleagues relax back at base
Prince Harry has been fighting the Taliban on the front line in Afghanistan, the Ministry of Defence confirmed today.
The 23-year-old Household Cavalry officer has spent the past 10 weeks secretly serving in war-ravaged Helmand Province. He has already directed one bomb attack, dismissed fears that he will be a "bullet magnet", and sworn he does not miss anything.
The deployment had been cloaked in secrecy under a news blackout deal agreed across the UK media to prevent details reaching the Taliban and endangering Harry and his comrades. But the arrangement broke down today after news was leaked out on the US website the Drudge Report.
The Prince takes aim with a rifle in Afghanistan
Prince Harry has been serving in Afghanistan for ten weeks, the MoD confirmed today
Australian magazine New Idea and German newspaper Bild also both broke the embargo on the news.
As part of the deal a group of journalists had visited the prince in Helmand on condition that details would only be publicised once he was safely back in the UK.
The deal was arranged after Harry's planned tour to Iraq last year had to be cancelled because of a security risk sparked by publicity.
Harry had sworn to quit the Army if he was not sent to fight
He later swore he would quit the Army if he was not allowed to fight.
Earlier this week a Royal Marine became the 89th British fatality in Afghanistan - the third killed there this year, and the second in one week.
The marine was trying to disrupt Taliban fighters in the southern province of Helmand when he was caught in a bomb blast.
The deaths followed a week of bomb explosions in southern Afghanistan, where the death toll from two days of suicide attacks rose to more than 140.
Chief of the General Staff Sir Richard Dannatt, who is head of the British Army, said he was disappointed the news had leaked.
In a statement, he said: "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 of overseas outlets, 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 judgment 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."
After the disappointment over Iraq, when Harry was due to work as a Scimitar light tank troop leader, he retrained as a battlefield air controller known as a JTAC (Joint Terminal Attack Controller) with a view to going to Afghanistan.
He flew out on December 14, two months into the current winter tour.
He spent several weeks working in Garmsir in the far south of Helmand Province, operating just 500m from front line Taliban positions.
He has since left Garmsir to work in another part of Helmand Province, details of which can not be reported for security reasons.
There is no immediate steer from the Ministry of Defence on the future of his deployment.
Harry had sworn to quit the Army if he was not sent to fight
The prince said his grandmother the Queen was the one who told him he would be sent to the front line.
She was a strong supporter of his desire to serve on the front line despite his position, he said. He said the monarch had been "relieved" when it was agreed he would finally be able to do the job he had trained to do.
dailymail.co.uk
*****************************************************
Harry in Afghanistan: 'I haven't had a shower in four days, it's freezing and there' s no drink - but I don't miss a thing'
28th February 2008
Daily Mail
Prince Harry with other British soldiers in Afghanistan
Buckingham Palace it definitely is not.
Far from the home comforts most of us would take for granted, Prince Harry tasted life on the front line in Afghanistan and found he was in his element.
“It's bizarre,” he said. “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.”
On his arrival in war-ravaged Helmand Province just before Christmas, he spent time on the ground at Forward Operating Bases Dwyer and Delhi in the far south of the province.
Even by military standards conditions were austere but, far from the palaces of his childhood, Harry remarked: “I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get.”
Prince Harry in Afghanistan
With nightly temperatures plunging to –8C when he arrived, there was no heating in sleeping areas, almost no running water in camp and little shelter from the elements.
At both outposts a row of angled pipes half-buried in the sand outdoors, affectionately named “desert roses”, serve as urinals.
The main toilets are the dreaded “thunderboxes” - plywood structures with a hole cut in the centre inside flimsy wooden cubicles.
At Fob Dwyer they have been aligned southward, enabling users – as the standard joke on camp goes – to “bare your ass to the enemy”.
Waste from the thunderboxes is collected in metal containers which are then filled with Kerosene and burnt, offering warmth if little else for those faced with the less-than-glamorous task.
Prince Harry passes a donkey while on patrol through the deserted town of Garmisir close to the his base, in Helmand province, Southern Afghanistan
At Dwyer the prospect of an extra £2-per-time is enough to guarantee a steady stream of volunteers for the job, while at Fob Delhi the same task is cheerfully carried out by the Gurkha troops currently manning the camp.
There, water shortages before the arrival of the annual rains meant showering and shaving had to be restricted to once every three days.
But morale was high and, despite the limitations, food at both camps was surprisingly good.
At Fob Dwyer a British cook works daily wonders with 10-man ration packs producing pasta, curries and mashed potato for hungry troops in a tented cookhouse dubbed “Hell Man's Kitchen”.
The Gurkha fare available at Fob Delhi is the envy of the Afghanistan theatre with regular chicken or goat curries on offer.
Many Gurkhas cook for themselves, buying live chickens and roosters from locals, slaughtering them with their distinctive machete-like kukri knives and rustling up curries on charcoal stoves in their sleeping quarters.
“What am I missing the most? Nothing really,” said Harry, sitting in his bed space at Fob Delhi.
“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 (non-alcoholic) drink.”
Clearly conscious of his tabloid image in the UK, he quickly added: “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.”
On arrival in Afghanistan, Harry was flown straight to Fob Dwyer, bypassing the relative comfort of the UK's main Camp Bastion base where troops can quell their homesickness by visiting a mobile Pizza Hut or have a non-alcoholic drink in something approximating a British pub.
Fob Dwyer is a dusty and isolated outpost in the middle of the desert about six miles from the front line.
There, soldiers sleep in crude bunker structures built from huge “Hescos”, blast-proof wire cages filled with rubble, topped with corrugated iron and sand bags.
The only real luxury is a television screen showing British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS) output thanks to a satellite link.
A battery of Royal Artillery 105mm guns provide the main excitement when the order comes through for a fire mission to suppress Taliban attacks on frontline British positions at Fob Delhi, further forward.
Making-do is the order of the day. A simple tented chapel on camp uses empty cases from Javelin missiles as pews.
But while conditions are basic, Dwyer's remote location means it has been the target of attacks only a handful of times.
By contrast Fob Delhi, where Harry was sent within days of his arrival, sits right on the front line as the southernmost allied position in Helmand.
There, troops look out from trenches and bunkers across 500 yards of no-man's land to the Taliban frontline. The camp or its connected observation positions come under attack several times a day with rocket propelled grenades, mortar shells and machine gun fire.
One of the observation posts, JTAC Hill, is built on the remains of a 19th century fort, used by the British during a previous involvement in the seemingly perpetually war-torn country.
Another, codenamed Balaclava, sits a few hundred yards away on the edge of Garmsir.
Once the main trading and administrative centre for southern Helmand, Garmsir is now a virtual ghost town.
In its main bazaar area, shop after shop lies empty, abandoned by its population, fleeing from the fighting a year ago when the Taliban were driven out.
Its long main street has more than a passing resemblance to the ruins of Pompeii, with former shops, restaurants, a clinic and even a veterinary surgery now lying empty.
Clues about its former life as a thriving centre are everywhere. Smashed televisions spilling from the front of one group of shops bear witness to what were once electrical stores.
Odd trainers without their pairs are scattered across the dusty main street, from what was once a shoe shop at the corner. Afghan bank notes, blown around by the breeze, are everywhere.
The main regional highway stops at Balaclava, beyond that are the Taliban.
“This is the end of the road – in many ways really,” remarked Major Mark Milford of the 1st Battalion, the Royal Gurkha Rifles, Harry's direct boss at Delhi.
The camp itself is a bombed out former US-built agricultural college which has changed hands several times and was once a Taliban madrassa. Is this a safe place for a prince? Major Milford was asked.
“No, not really,” he replied in a matter-of-fact manner.
But Harry evidently loved it.
“Yes, it has (a reputation as being the front line) but when you know you are with the Gurkhas I think there's no safer place to be really,” he said.
In many ways everyday life at Delhi is even more basic than at Dwyer.
At Dwyer no-one is allowed to wash before 11am in winter – because what running water there is is still frozen.
At Delhi there is no running water. The “showers” are simply a bag hung up in an outdoor wooden cubicle.
Some hot water is available from a “Puffing Billy” – a mini boiler which heats a metal barrel into which the troops can sparingly dip a mortar case as a makeshift bucket. The rounded ends of missile cases are used as shaving bowls.
Harry shared a room with a constantly changing contingent of Royal Artillery soldiers, alternating between stints up on JTAC Hill and the camp itself.
“This is what it is all about,” he remarked.
“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, stagging on, stagging off, doing a week because it's quite a lot of graft up there.
“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 a room with, makes it all worthwhile.
“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.”
When David Baxter was sent to Afghanistan as a battlefield air controller he did not expect to be cracking jokes with the third-in-line to the throne.
But two months into his tour of duty in Helmand, the 28-year-old
non-commissioned officer found himself mentoring one of his regiment's youngest officers - Prince Harry.
The former tank driver from Bendooragh near Coleraine in Northern Ireland - who holds the rank of Corporal of Horse in the Household Cavalry Regiment - was sent to Afghanistan to work as a Forward Air Controller (FAC) in the autumn.
The crucially important job involves covert aerial surveillance of Taliban positions, co-ordinating planes and helicopters entering his area and - when necessary - calling in airstrikes.
He was initially part of a two-man team, working with a South African captain.
But when, having done back-to-back tours in Iraq and Afghanistan without a break, his work partner went home for some leave, Corporal Baxter was told he would be sent a newly trained FAC - Prince Harry.
“He's a really down-to-earth person,” he said.
“To be honest I don't think anyone thinks of him as third in line to the throne or anything, you just take him at face value as any other Household Cavalry officer.”
The prince, 23, was bitterly disappointed last year to be told that plans to send him to Iraq had been cancelled.
But, rather than leave the army, the prince retrained as an FAC last summer in order to go to Afghanistan - this time without any advance publicity.
The idea was that he would be sent as part of the two-man team attached to his battlegroup headquarters at Forward Operating Base Dwyer in the far south of Helmand.
Harry arrived at the base just before Christmas and quickly hit it off with Corporal Baxter.
They had not previously been close friends but the County Antrim man was well used to seeing the prince around as they are both part of the Household Cavalry - although Harry is in the Blues and Royals unit while Corporal Baxter serves with the Lifeguards.
“His arrival as far as I could tell was kept quite hush hush,” Corporal Baxter - who has been in the army nine-and-a-half years and served in Iraq and Kosovo as well as Afghanistan - explained.
“A lot of people didn't know he was coming out but he has fitted in really well. “Everyone from the Household Cavalry Regiment knows him, has worked with him for about a year or so now.
“We are used to having him about so it has not really been any change for us ... it has just been a surprise for those that are attached such as the gunners.
“They were initially surprised to see him ... but at the end of the day he is just treated the same as any other officer from the regiment.”
Although Harry's work saw him spend hours on end speaking with pilots from many countries over the radio, they knew him only by his call sign Widow Six Seven. Corporal Baxter was one of the few in on the secret.
“The first time he took over the net from his predecessor he was straight in there,” he explained.
“He's really confident and sounded like he had been there for quite a considerable amount of time.
“He has always got a rapport with the pilots that he's talking to, I'm sure they would be quite shocked as well if they knew who they were talking to.”
During long shifts in the battlegroup operations room, it was not long before the two red-heads were sharing jokes and laddish banter.
“He fixed my radio for me so he's a good guy to have on board despite being ginger and Irish,” red-headed Harry affectionately joked.
“It's a lethal mix.”
Despite the reason for the cancellation of the prince's Iraq tour Corporal Baxter was relaxed about the presence of his high-profile colleague.
“To be honest, it is something that I haven't really thought about myself, he's not out on patrol all the time and it's a question of whether any of the local nationals out here would recognise him, they don't have TV, they don't read newspapers. “If something was (written in the media) back in the UK it might change things. “But I don't think it could get any more dangerous than what it already is.” He added: “I think a lot of people are more happy for him, he was quite disappointed with the fact that he couldn't get out to Iraq. “For any soldier to be told that they can't go on tour for whatever reason is quite disappointing and most people are actually just glad to see that he has been able to do the job that he trained to do.”
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