Posted on 07/03/2010 7:28:30 PM PDT by naturalman1975
Prince William is battling to go to the Falkland Islands next year as an RAF search-and-rescue helicopter pilot.
William, 28, finishes his training in the autumn and is due to travel to the Falklands for eight weeks next summer.
But there is a huge question mark over whether Buckingham Palace will let him take up the post because Argentina is pressing its claim to the islands.
A source told The Mail on Sunday: ‘He will try everything in his power to make sure he goes out there with the rest of RAF Valley in Anglesey.
‘He has Royal engagements and other official duties, and that has to be considered, but he is adamant that he is going.’
If he does, William would be following in the footsteps of his uncle, Prince Andrew, who was a helicopter pilot in the 1982 Falklands War.
Argentina is using every opportunity at international meetings to press its claim to the Falklands after British company Rockhopper revealed there are positive signs of oil in the waters around the South Atlantic islands.
Sources say this could be a reason why William would be held back from heading out to the Falklands with his colleagues from RAF Valley.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
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I like the kid. And his little brother too.
Got to give him credit for not hiding behind his postition to get out of a potentially dangerous assignment.
He has some stones; i’ll give him that.
Hard to believe its been almost 30 years since that conflict. Seems like yesterday.
Now that I think of it, at the time of the invasion it seemed like it took the Brits 30 years to get there.
You call the tundra of the Falklands a "dangerous assignment"?
It’s hardly a danger zone is it? There is no military reason for him not go so I wouldn’t see it as a military excuse.
He does want to go.
They’ve already more or less ruled out allowing him to serve in combat (his brother, as the “spare” is a combat soldier, the heir therefore cannot be - maintaining the succession is considered important), and so he went into S&R in the hope of actually being able to have a genuinely useful military career in a non-combat role. Now the government is raising blocks to that.
Like any junior officer, he must obey orders - he does so, but he doesn’t have to like it.
Britain is 12,000+ from the south of Argentina, near Patagonia and South Georgia island, where the Falklands are located. I believe that it took the Brits about a month to get there. Prince Andrew served during the Falklands conflict and deployed there in the summer of 1982.
I recall that the BBC refused to run a popular music video by New Zealand’s Split Enz at the time titled “Six Months In A Leaky Boat” because Buckingham Palace thought that the song would be defining the British fleet on its way to Argentina. The song had nothing to do with that — it had been written by Neil and Tim Finn years earlier.
Potentially dangerous in that if the Argentines were to capture him, they could ransom him for the deed to the Falkland Islands. Just my take. ;-)
It’s purely political and diplomatic - a member of the Royal Family visiting the Falklands at the moment in any capacity could upset the Argentinians and make negotiations more difficult. The question is how much of a concern this really is right now.
Prince Andrew deployed to the Falklands in the summer of 1982, and Queenie let him go (but, then again, he wasn’t the Heir to the Throne...)
You don’t know much about the Royals.
And you’ve Assam’ed with them?
>>
You call the tundra of the Falklands a “dangerous assignment”?
<<
The Falklands conflict in the eighties cost over a thousand lives. It was pretty damned dangerous then. Hell; the weather in that part of the world is plenty dangerous on its own.
Pffffttt! Do you think that the present-day Argentines, with their ditzy President and tanking economy, are in any sort of position to claim themselves to be a Naval superpower of any kind or able to capture the Heir to the British Throne for ransom? Highly unlikely.
During the actual Falklands conflict, Maggie Thatcher was in a direct war with the Ruthless Argentine Military Dictator Galtieri, and Maggie ended up winning.
I like him too. And I can’t stand the Royals. What up with that?
The Argentinians have the Falklands Islands set to a religious level. If you look into it, the hysteria is actually frightening. You have to ask though, if they honestly think the Islands are theirs why don’t they fight for it. I am sure the US and UK would fight anyone if their own nation was supposedly invaded.
With oil drilling starting in the area it’s best to keep them quietish. It saves any petulance.
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