Prince Harry has revealed the horror he witnessed in Afghanistan while serving as an Apache helicopter pilot.
Writing in The Sunday Times, the fourth in line to the throne said he was “hit” by the reality of war when he saw images of dead and injured soldiers and children.
”I had never seen it first-hand,” he wrote. ”By ‘it’ I mean the injuries that were being sustained largely due to improvised explosive devices (IEDs).
”Loss of life is as tragic and devastating as it gets, but to see young lads – much younger than me – wrapped in plastic and missing limbs, with hundreds of tubes coming out of them, was something I never prepared myself for.”
The 29-year-old royal, who often flew injured personnel and civilians to the hospital at the Camp Bastion military base, is now helping organise the Invictus Games – a Paralympic-style tournament for injured servicemen and women.
“How, I thought, do you ease their trauma and give new meaning to their shattered lives? Then it hit me: sport. Which is why I have set up the Invictus Games for wounded warriors,” he said in the newspaper.
The games will be held from September 10 to 14.
.jpg?fit=650%2C488&resize=650%2C488)
Prince Harry, in uniform, attends the launch of the Invictus Games in March this year.
Prince Harry wearing his monocle gun sight as he sits in the front seat of his Apache Helicopter.
Prince Harry gives the thumbs up upon his arrival at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan in 2012.
Prince Harry walking out of a tent at the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
Harry visits troops participating in the ‘Spring Storm’ NATO military exercises in May.
.jpg?fit=650%2C903&resize=650%2C903)
Prince Harry at a mission briefing last year at the British controlled flight-line at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province.
Harry runs out of the tent at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan’s Helmand Province, where he was serving as an Apache Helicopter Pilot/Gunner with 662 Sqd Army Air Corps.
Harry said the horror of war has inspired him to start the Invictus Games for injured personnel.
.jpg?fit=650%2C450&resize=650%2C450)
Harry plays sitting Volleyball during the launch of the Invictus Games.
Harry talks to injured soldier wheelchair basketball players at the Invictus Games launch.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
