[AmishDude]

It happens to guys who have no direction in life. It would be nice if he decided to be a career man. Although it must make the ranks awkward.

[MikefromOhio]

it does.

It did for my dad at least.

I personally think that a tour in Iraq should be mandatory for all service members, Brit or American.

[naturalman1975]

Not really a problem at all - his uncle, the Duke of York had a reasonably normal naval career with normal rank progression. And he was in a similar position to Harry - younger brother to a likely future King.

For the actual heir, it could be a bit more awkward - but could be done even then.

If Harry wants a military career, then there shouldn't be too much difficulty unless something happens to his brother (who is also now in the Army).

[af_vet_rr]

It happens to guys who have no direction in life. It would be nice if he decided to be a career man. Although it must make the ranks awkward.

I wouldn't be surprised if he spent quite a few years in the service - his father spent 5 or 6 years in the Royal Navy, his grandfather spent several years in the Navy (throughout WWII and beyond), his great-grandfather, King George VI, was at the Battle of Jutland, one of his uncles (Anne's husband) is a Rear Admiral in the Navy (he maybe retired), his uncle, Prince Andrew, spent 20+ years in the Navy. In other words, the Royals take military service seriously (it was a huge embarassment when his uncle Edward couldn't hack it in the Royal Marines). There was a show on one of the History channels recently (probably History International) that got into all of this (I'm not normally a walking encyclopedia of current Royal military service, I just remember the ones above, and I probably got some of them wrong).

I don't believe it makes the ranks awkward, I spent some time in the UK around a lot of military personnel, and while I wasn't around any Royals that I know of, from their attitude, I don't think they'd care who your parents were as long as you can pull your own weight.

If anything, a Royal not being able to pull their own weight (i.e. Edward) is cause for huge embarassment on the part of the Royal.