Prince Harry Arrives in Australia as Military Career Winds Down
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Lukas Coch – Pool/Getty Images(CANBERRA, Australia) — Prince Harry arrived in Australia Monday, where he will spend the next four weeks wrapping up his military career.
His first order of business: Laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and greeting fans in the capital Canberra.
Harry’s four-week deployment with the Australian Army will next take him to Darwin, Sydney and Perth. The trip is part of his “military goodbye” as Captain Harry Wales, as he is known in the British Army, prepares for the next chapter in his life.
Harry, the fourth-in-line to the British throne, joined the British Army in May 2005 and rose to the rank of Apache helicopter commander. The British Defense Ministry named Harry the best front-seat pilot, or co-pilot gunner, in February 2012 from his class of more than 20 fellow Apache helicopter pilots.
He served as a forward air controller in Afghanistan from 2007 to 2008. He returned to the U.K. when his cover was blown. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant with the Household Cavalry in 2008, and began training as an Army Air Corps pilot in January 2009. In July 2010, he began the 18-month Apache training course, during which he was awarded the prize for best co-pilot gunner.
He served a second tour of Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot from 2012 to 2013. Later that year, he qualified as an Apache aircraft commander.
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