Word: williams
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...debate just how official William's training program has been. In a separate trip on April 11, the Prince piloted a Chinook to his cousin's bachelor party on the Isle of Wight in southern England. On that trip, he stopped off at Woolwich Barracks in London to pick up his brother, Prince Harry, who has been stationed there since returning in late February from a 10-week army deployment in Afghanistan's embattled Helman Province...
...Prince William, a second lieutenant in the British Army, has been on a four-month, abbreviated training mission with the RAF. His training culminated in an April 11 ceremony in which he was "awarded his wings" - that is, officially made a pilot - amid fanfare and press attention. But after news surfaced of William's splashy arrival at his girlfriend's estate, the Ministry of Defense was forced to issue a release defending the sortie as a legitimate exercise. Unusually, it gave details of the mission, saying that William did not exit the Chinook at the Middleton property, but simply practiced...
...Ministry of Defense has also said that the flight to the Isle of Wight, via London, gave William exposure to different flying conditions. But that flight, which William and Harry used to join Peter Phillips, son of Princess Anne, for his bachelor party, took place after William had already earned his wings, raising questions about why it was cleared as a training mission...
...Nick Harvey, defense spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, told the Daily Mail newspaper: "[William's trips] are going to leave a lot of people wondering where the priority lies if very serious helicopters are being made available for this sort of thing at a time when they are in such extreme need...
...controversy also touches on an ongoing debate over Britain's warrior princes. Prince William, and to a lesser extent his brother Harry, has been the country's cherished son since the premature death of his mother, Princess Diana. The struggle for the military has been to harness the image of the well-favored child - the codename of William's flight training was "Golden Kestrel" - while also protecting him from the prospect of sudden death in a combat zone. When news broke that Prince Harry had been serving in the dangerous Helmand province, many British papers lionized his bravery and commended...