Prince Charles warmly congratulated pilots and ground crew at a medal ceremony at Wattisham Airfield today and presented awards to some of those who supported Prince Harry during his own spell in Afghanistan.
The Prince of Wales arrived at Wattisham by helicopter to hand out an array of medals to 3 Regiment Army Air Corps, including 176 campaign medals.
For the vast majority of the soldiers collecting medals, the ceremony officially marked the end of a 12-month deployment supporting infantry with Apache attack helicopters and Lynx utility helicopters.
After chatting with each recipient, the Prince addressed the airmen and their families from a rostrum at the centre of the hangar.
He expressed the nation's gratitude to the soldiers and his own feelings of privilege in being invited to the base to distribute the honours, which he described as 'incredibly well deserved'.
He also talked about his wish to visit Afghanistan himself to see the conditions the soldiers faced on a daily basis but he said he had listened intently to reports from officers of the situation and moral amongst the airmen.
He said the support the regiment provided the infantry had been second to none and he also congratulated the engineers for keeping the craft in the air even when they returned 'with a few bullet holes in them'.
"We are incredibly lucky there are so many young men and women who are prepared to do all of this," he said.
In addition to the service medals distributed, Staff Sgt William Cullen, Staff Sgt Russel Fox, Corp Richard Fox and Corp Phil Costello were all awarded Long Service and Good Conduct medals. Capt Adam Hare was also a recipient of the Queen's Commendation for Valuable Service medal.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Click here to go back to our main news index. The full article contains 305 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
