Prince Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor has claimed the duke was wrong to reveal how many people he killed while in Afghanistan.
The Duke of Sussex went to Afghanistan as an infantryman in 2008, before training as a pilot and returning as an Apache gunner in 2012, when he was 27.
In his memoir Spare, Harry detailed that he had killed 25 Taliban fighters and wrote: “Each death was recorded on video.
‘The Apache saw it all. The camera in his nose recorded everything. So after each mission, there would be a careful review of that video.
“I was part of six missions that ended in the death of human lives, and all of them were considered justified… I considered them the same.”
The Prince also wrote that he did not think of those murdered “as people” but as “chess pieces” that he had removed from the board.
Steve Jones, Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor, criticized the duke for revealing his death count and described those killed as “real people” with families.
Prince Harry conducts his early morning pre-flight checks on the British-controlled flight line at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand province in December 2012.
Prince Harry on the British-controlled flight line at Camp Bastion in southern Afghanistan in 2012.
“It’s not what we do,” he said. The Telegraphh. “We’re not here to say, ‘I did this, I did that.’ It’s not a game. These are real people. They have families.
“I wouldn’t have made any comments. I feel very uncomfortable with anyone who says ‘I killed 10.’ It’s not what should be said at all.
Jones added: “But (Harry) had a successful tour.” It’s a shame he didn’t stick around to do more, but I guess he checked that box, he scratched that itch and moved on.
“I would say he’s taken a step back in some ways, from the way he was to (how he is) now.”
Almost 10 years after leaving the military, Jones is in the commercial industry, flying helicopters to oil platforms in the North Sea off the coast of Aberdeen.
He also praised Harry for his work in the army, saying: “Some people have said he only passed because of who he is.”
‘Could not be farther from the truth. “He definitely played hard, but he would also work hard.”
Prince Harry’s Apache helicopter instructor has claimed the Duke was wrong to reveal how many people he killed while in Afghanistan.
Prince Harry with his wife Meghan Markle or the Invictus Games Dusseldorf 2023
Last year, the duke, known as “Captain Wales” in the army, wrote that he did not regard those killed “as people” but as “chess pieces” he had removed from the board.
It was the first time Harry had specified the number of insurgents he personally killed during his time in Afghanistan, where he served in both 2007-2008 and 2012 and flew an Apache attack helicopter during his second tour.
In Spare, the Prince said he flew on six missions that resulted in the “claim of human lives” in his leaked autobiography.
While many soldiers do not know how many enemies they have killed in combat, the duke wrote that ‘in the age of Apaches and laptops’ he could say ‘accurately’ the number of insurgents he killed.
Harry wrote that “you can’t kill people if you see them as people” and said that he instead saw them as “chess pieces removed from the board”… “bad guys removed.”
