I don't know what normal is any more': Prince Harry reveals he saw seven-year-old girl killed by Taliban on his last day of Afghan tour

Prince Harry has admitted he 'doesn't know what normal is anymore' after arriving back in the UK from his second tour of Afghanistan.
The Apache co-pilot gunner has been on post-deployment 'decompression' at a British military base in Akrotiri, Cyprus, since leaving Helmand province on Monday night.
Harry landed at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire on a regular personnel flight but did not travel on with his unit, 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, to their base in Wattisham, Suffolk.
The 28-year-old said a seven-year-old girl was shot down by insurgents on his final day on tour, adding: 'Normality is a very ambiguous thing.'

 

He said: 'It was a hell of an experience. I’m really proud of the guys. It's very different to when I was last out there. I'm just thrilled to be back. A bit of blue sky in Cyprus, a bit of decompression, some comedy - and back to the snow. Four and a half months has gone very quickly.
'You get life experiences that you get nowhere else out there. The best thing about it is to be back. I'll be looking forward to getting back and seeing my family. Being away for four and a half months you forget what's happened in the news.'
He told Sky News: ‘I don't know what normal is anymore and never really have done.
'There's nothing normal about what we've doing for the last four and a half months.
'In the last day that I was there a seven-year-old girl got shot down by insurgents. Normality is a very ambiguous thing. I will continue being myself. I will enjoy being a soldier.'
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Back: Prince Harry (fourth right) arrives at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire after the completion of his tour

 

Returning: Prince Harry walks down the steps of a Royal Air Force A-330 transport aircraft at RAF Brize Norton

APACHE INSTRUCTOR REVEALS HARRY TRICKED FOREIGN OFFICIALS

Prince Harry’s Apache instructor will reveal tomorrow how the Prince once tricked foreign officials into thinking he was arriving on a later plane as they waited to meet him.
Former Apache Squadron Commander Richard Youngs will praise him as a ‘very professional young officer’ who is ‘gregarious as all young officers tend to be’ and ‘absolutely dedicated’.
He will tell ITV’s Tonight programme tomorrow at 8:30pm: ‘My favourite Harry moment is when we went mountain flying in France and landing at Le Touquet airport and a big entourage (was) coming out to meet him.
‘The French officer walks up to him – we were taking our immersion suits off and refuelling the aircraft – and the officer walked up to him and asked him when Prince Harry would be arriving.
‘He, quick as a flash, looked back at him and said “he's on the next aircraft in”, quickly smiled at me, gave me a wink, got back in the cockpit and we flew off. He's very quick.’

Harry added that he is hoping to carry out more Royal duties and charitable work back in Britain. and said he is 'longing to catch up with people behind closed doors - you guys (the media) aren't invited'.
Harry didn't go with the rest of his 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, to their base. St James's Palace said he left Brize Norton privately, but did not say where he was headed.
He said killing the Taliban is a job 'you would expect to do' as a soldier - 'a job for ourselves, a job for the guys left and right of us, and from my point of view, especially for the guys on the ground.'
'You get asked to do things that you would expect to do wearing this uniform, and it's a simple as that really.'
The 28-year-old is likely to have sunk his first beer in 20 weeks on the Mediterranean island, as troops are given four cans of lager to help unwind after an arduous tour in Helmand.
Last night it emerged that Scotland Yard chiefs are reviewing their protection for the 28-year-old after his candid admission that he has killed enemy fighters while abroad.

 

 

Returning: He flew on board a regular personnel aircraft - an Airbus A330 Voyager - and landed at the Oxfordshire base with his 662 Squadron, 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, at around 4.45pm

 

Interview: Prince Harry talked to Sky News after he arrived home at RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire

The prince revealed on Monday that he took Taliban fighters 'out of the game' from the cockpit of Apache attack helicopters and admitted he 'let himself down' by romping naked in Las Vegas just weeks before his deployment.

'You get life experiences that you get nowhere else out there'
Prince Harry

In an interview to mark the end of his four-month tour of duty in Afghanistan, the third in line to the throne confirmed he had been directly responsible for the deaths of one or more insurgents as a co-pilot gunner.
The prince said: ‘Yeah, so lots of people have. The squadron’s been out here. Everyone’s fired a  certain amount.’
He also suggested he was better at flying helicopters because of his experience at computer games.

 

 

Candid interview: Last night it emerged that Scotland Yard chiefs are reviewing protection for the 28-year-old after he admitted he killed enemy fighters in Afghanistan

'It's a joy for me because I'm one of those people who loves playing PlayStation and Xbox, so with my thumbs I like to think that I'm probably quite useful,' the prince told reporters.
Former senior officers expressed surprise at his comments last night - and experts warned he had made himself 'a prime target'.
The shadow defence secretary suggested that Harry had been overly 'candid' in discussing his role in the fighting.

Dai Davies, former head of the Met’s Royalty Protection Squad, said: ‘Purely from a protection point of view, I think it was highly unadvisable for Prince Harry to draw attention to himself.'

 

Pilot: Prince Harry makes his early morning pre-flight checks in the cockpit on the flight-line at Camp Bastion

Another former senior officer, Glen Smyth, ex-chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, said: ‘I think it would have been better for Prince Harry to have simply said he had been deployed in an operational capacity, and to have left it at that.
'The frank admission from Harry that he had personally killed enemy fighters drew a backlash from anti-war activists, some former soldiers and the Taliban themselves.

'He’s obviously a young and brave man. He was candid. Perhaps he may have been more candid than the Palace may have wished'
Labour defence spokesman Jim Murphy

A 'spokesman' for the Taliban described Harry as a 'coward', saying: ‘We have always wanted to capture or kill this prince, but he was mostly kept inside, safe, and in guarded places underground.'
It is unusual for returning soldiers with any kind of profile to highlight their achievements in killing enemy fighters.
Labour defence spokesman Jim Murphy said: 'He’s obviously a young and brave man. He was candid. Perhaps he may have been more candid than the Palace may have wished.'
But Prince Harry was also praised for his bravery during a debate in the House of Commons.