There are concerns about his safety, in a sense. Harry once was pulled from a warzone for fear of his unit being specially targeted.
But it’s not like US Secret Service protection. The Windsors are very big on national service, not least for those highest in the line of succession. I think it’s partly a credibility thing.
In any case, Harry is not a sovereign, nor a government officer. He’s a “spare.”
Laws? Why would we have laws about such things?
If Harry wanted to go swimming with sharks, there’s nothing to stop him doing so, barr the wrath of his father. Any security detail that does follow him aren’t there to control him.
Doubt he has such a thing in Afghanistan. It would hardly make for effective operations.
I’ve seen documentaries of, for instance Foreign Legion jungle training, or special forces selection process, and simply regular volunteer basic training, but I never saw any insult being thrown at anybody, for example. I’ve seen absurdly high performances of legionaires being demeaned, psychological tricks being played upon would be special force soldiers, harsh words and punishments handed to regular volunteers, but nothing similar to what is depicted in US movies about drill sergeants.
As an instructor in the Coast Guard, there were times when I (an ET2, or 2nd Class Petty Officer or E-5) was outranked by my students. The commissioned and warrant officers understood the situation clearly. It was the ET1s (1st Class Petty Officer aka E-6) and CPOs who were more likely to cause issues.
In special schools, like Ranger, Special Forces, or Jump school for the Airborne, there’s a bit of a difference in how commissioned and enlisted trainees are treated by their training staff. Where a SSgt trainer might say to a Pvt “Drop and give me 20, you mindless idiot!” he’d say to a Captain “I’d appreciate it if the Captain would drop and give me 30 push ups, sir”.
And there’s a phrase that any member of the training cadre might use: “No, you don’t call me Sir. I call you Sir. And you won’t like it.”
Prince George, younger brother of Kings Edward VIII and George VI was a group captain in the RAF when he died in an air crash in 1942.
I’d assume that in a warzone, the Prince isn’t going to be wandering around the Afghan countryside on his own. Presumably the military unit he is assigned to would provide the protection for him (safety in numbers and what not).
As I recall, Prince Harry was deployed to Afghanistan last year, and there was a big fuss about Camp Bastion being attacked while he was assigned there, although the official word was that he was “never in any danger”. Of course, if Harry had been elbow deep in bad guys beating them down with his tea mug, the official word would have probably been the same. As his assigned duty at the time was as a helo pilot, most likely he was hunkering down in a bunker or a locked-down facility like most non-ground-combat types would be in such a situation, staying out of the way while the guys whose job it was to handle that sort of thing handled the thing.
Regarding the picture with the tea mug, he might have just been getting a refill for someone else while he was up. “Hey mate, I’m getting more tea, you want some?” “Yeah, and grab be some biscuits too, Your Highness?”
Regarding the nickname of “Big Willy”, if you’re stunned that someone has a mildly inappropriate nickname in the military, you’re new to that entire culture.
And regarding Basic Training, one of the girls who went through Air Force Basic Military Training at the same time I did happened to be the daughter of a Lieutenant General (why the daughter of a flag officer was enlisting in the Air Guard, I’ll never know), and I recall her MTI singling her out based on that. I’m picturing some British NCO getting in his face saying “I SUPPOSE YOU NEVER HAVE TO STAND AT ATTENTION IN THE PALACE. DON’T LOOK AT ME, LOCK IT UP, YOUR HIGHNESS!”
snicker
One of mrAru’s junior officers on the Spadefish was a lt Perry…related to this Perry. Yup, gold rings and braid run in the family.
Make the cushy, stay at home jobs be volunteer: that way you get the Red Cross staffed by people who don’t wanna leave mommy’s skirts, but in exchange they have to stay longer than those who risked the lottery.
Worked quite well for generations.
Yeah, why would this be the subject of law? I should imagine whoever is responsible for security has the flexibility to decide the appropriate number based on need and budget. Ad I’m sure that he can be overridden. Do you actually think that someone could be held in violation of a law based on teh failure to maintain a specific number?
Probably any such laws would simply say that they had to maintain enough security to protect him. If he ends up dead, it’s quite possible someone didn’t follow that rule. If this means a battalion of tanks in formation around him, or Daniel Craig with a martini shaker, would depend on the situation.
I was reading about some former Soviet country (I’m afraid I forget which) currently involved in Afghanistan with NATO, which has it’s armed forces divided into three formations. Two of the formations are primarily conscript troops. Their primary mission is homeland defense, and as such they do not deploy overseas. The third formation is all-volunteer, and they do deploy overseas in support of NATO missions. Thus, you can’t be drafted and shipped off to war, you’re just the reserves in case the Russians invade or something.
No sane law would be written to require an outcome of “protecting X.” That’s the point. It makes no sense to assume that law would require a minimum number of security personnel. Someone would be put in charge of security and his or her role would be defined as being in charge of protection.
[QUOTE=Lemur866;15915525 In Russia or*** China*** they are quite willing to literally beat the hell out of conscripts who won’t play ball. That isn’t going to fly in Austria or Denmark. In a democratic country you can’t mistreat conscripts just because the conscripts aren’t very good soldiers.[/QUOTE]
The PLA is has been all volunteer for a long time.
[QUOTE=San Vito]
If Harry wanted to go swimming with sharks, there’s nothing to stop him doing so, barr the wrath of his father. Any security detail that does follow him aren’t there to control him.
Doubt he has such a thing in Afghanistan. It would hardly make for effective operations.
[/QUOTE]
I doubt he would go swimming with sharks too. But, it would not be his father’s wrath or his security team which stops him, but the complete absence of any available Ocean.:rolleyes:
Prince Harry is not confined to Afghanistan.
A Staff Report that may be of interest: Is the Secret Service responsible for keeping the president from getting drunk? - The Straight Dope
Ex-presidents are evidently free to go sky-diving at least. George Bush (#41) continues to do so, even though he’s like 80 years old now.
I think he caught the itch for it when he was shot down in WWII.