During his military career, Prince Harry rose through the ranks. While he chose to withdraw from the British Royal Family, Prince William’s brother was unfortunately stripped of his military titles.
It is the end of an era for Prince Harry. When he was a member of the Royal Family, the grandson of Elizabeth II held many honorary military ranks. While he chose to retire from the British Royal Family in March 2020, he has just been stripped of his military titles.
According to the autobiography Finding Freedom, Prince William’s brother would be very saddened by this loss and Meghan Markle would be heartbroken for him. Omid Scobie and Carolyn Durand would have written: “The most demoralizing aspect of the new agreement was the fact that he was stripped of his honorary military appointments that had been awarded to him as a Senior Royal.
If Prince Harry had resigned from the army in 2015 because he could not serve in the field for security reasons related to his royal status, it would still affect him enormously. The two authors added: “As a retired military man, Harry would still be able to wear his medals, but he could no longer wear the uniform as Captain General of the Royal Marines, Honorary Commander of the Royal Air Force Base Honington and Honorary Chief Commodore of Small Ships and Diving Operations of the Royal Navy.”
A look back at Prince Harry’s military career
Serving his country has always been a priority for the son of Prince Charles. In 2005, at the age of 21, he entered the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst before applying to join the British troops stationed in Afghanistan.
While this presented risks for his security, he would have threatened if he refused to leave the army, see the country to settle in Africa. In an interview, he was sure of himself when he said: “There’s no way I’m going to go through Sandhurst and then go home and let my guys go and fight for the country”. So he was able to fight the war in Afghanistan for ten weeks under a false identity: Harry Wales.
In 2008, Prince Harry expressed his desire to fly military helicopters. On May 7, 2010, he received his pilot’s license from his father. The following year, he received his Apache Flying badge, before being promoted to captain in April 2011.
After completing his training with a twelve-week internship in the United States, he was told by his supervisor that he had passed his Apache helicopter captain’s exam. Finally, Prince Harry joined the staff in January 2014, where he oversaw the organization of various events such as World War I commemorations and the Warriors Games.
