Being a prince and a military helicopter pilot in Afghanistan must be stressful enough, but Prince Harry appears to manage his dual roles with class, humor and a healthy dose of fun, according to a new British media pool report released Sunday.
In the report, details emerge about Prince Harry’s daily routine in Afghanistan, such as his favorite foods – chicken and broccoli – and his favorite off-duty activities, a subject that's been making front-page headlines since he returned to Britain on Wednesday after a 20-week deployment in Afghanistan.
According to today's report, the prince stashed favorite movies in his communal tent that he liked to watch when off-duty, including “Full Metal Jacket", ''Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon" – not exactly the kind of movies some would call stress-reducing, but perhaps they provided the prince a healthy escape from the real life war battles he was fighting.
In addition to movies, the prince found other ways to balance the rigors of combat with some light-hearted fun. For example, he and his fellow squad members liked to swap Kit Kats and Rice Krispies Squares in exchange for M&Ms from American soldiers.
Prior to his return to Britain, Harry himself talked about one of his less-prestigious duties involving a game he played with fellow comrades called Uckers, which is similar to Parcheesi. According to the third-in-line to the British throne, any of his fellow squad members who lost at Uckers had to then wait on his comrades like a Buckingham Palace butler, ready with a fresh cup of tea whenever anyone rang their bell.
"Whoever loses ... then you have to make brews for everybody all day," Harry told journalists.
On a more serious note, Harry acknowledged upon his return to Britain that he had targeted Taliban fighters from the cockpit of his Apache attack helicopter. When asked whether he had killed anyone, he answered, "Yeah, so, lots of people have.”
The prince’s response upset some Britons and led to front-page headlines, including one in The Daily Mail stating, "Harry: I Have Killed."
However, today's report was about the more mundane aspects of the prince's daily routine in Afghanistan, such as playing video games and drinking beer with his fellow comrades, activities that are not expected to make the same kind of splashy headlines, although some may find it interesting that the royal prince, an Apache pilot, also had stashed in his tent the Ridley Scott film, "Black Hawk Down", which is about a helicopter raid gone wrong in Somalia, according to The Associated Press.
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