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Philip Smart | Adelaide

Captain Harry Wales, otherwise known as His Royal Highness Prince Harry, has spent his first two weeks in the Australian Army with the North-West Mobile Force (NORFORCE) and the 1st Brigade.

He has participated in the day-to-day activities of soldiering, including physical training sessions and preparing for field exercises as part of Exercise Thunder Observer, a Joint Fire Team Training exercise, soon to be conducted by the 1st Brigade’s 8th/12th Medium Regiment, Royal Australian Artillery.

Designed to maintain combat readiness, the exercise will include a live fire collaboration between ground and air assets.  

After meeting with some of the Army’s wounded, injured and ill members, Captain Wales joined in a game of wheelchair AFL (Australian Football League) with soldiers from the Soldier Recovery Centre and the 1st Brigade.

Thanks to the 1st Aviation Regiment at Robertson Barracks in Darwin, Prince Harry also managed to get back in to the air at the controls of a military helicopter, the ARH Tiger.

Following flight simulator training, he headed out with members of the 1st Aviation Regiment on an ARH Tiger reconnaissance flight.

Prince Harry spent three and a half years in training and operational service with the British Army’s Apache Helicopter Force during his attachment to the Army Air Corps, including two operational tours of Afghanistan as a Forward Air Controller and Apache pilot.

He qualified as an Apache aircraft commander in 2013.

He is well known for his support of wounded and recovering soldiers, supporting various charities and programs in the United Kingdom for the rehabilitation of British soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Captain Wales’ attachment with the Australian Defence Force will continue after Gallipoli commemorations in Turkey, when he will return to Australia to spend time with Australian Army units in Perth and Sydney.

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