Only One Brother Is 'Exceptional': Prince Harry Barely Mentioned in New Sandhurst Academy Book That Praises Prince William Instead
Prince Harry has a heavily decorated military history in the British Armed Forces, but the prestigious Sandhurst Military Academy chose to focus on Prince William despite the Duke of Sussex's achievements. The fiery-haired prince only appears in one passage (about William) in the book, They Also Served: 200 People Who Trained At Sandhurst.
"His [William’s] status as a future king meant that he could not be deployed on operations like his younger brother, Harry," the excerpt reads.
Although some claim that the Prince of Wales, who wrote the book's foreword, gets high priority since he is a future Commander-in-Chief, others close to Harry are speaking out about the glaring omission.
"He’s done enough to be in there," Royal Marine Ben McBean told an outlet in Harry's defense. "He’s done more than most, but people forget that. Afghanistan, twice. Pilot set up Invictus Games."
He continued: "I just think he’s done enough to be in there. The reason he’s not is probably because he’s fallen out with his family. I’m pretty sure if he hadn’t he’d be in there."
Prince Harry became a star of sorts of the British Armed Forces during the 2000s, thanks in part to his tour of duty on the front lines in the War in Afghanistan.
The Montecito Duke shared in great length his experience as a veteran in his memoir, Spare. Harry described the Taliban members as "chess pieces taken off a board, bad guys eliminated before they kill the good guys,” and later wrote that he wasn't "ashamed" of his time as a captain.
"You can’t kill people if you see them as people," he wrote. "They trained me to 'other' them, and they trained me well."
Still, there are many who feel that the book revelations combined with his leaving Britain could be part of the omission. Colonel Richard Kemp, who was a Commander during the war, said, "Harry is a notable graduate of Sandhurst due to his royal status. Beyond that, he insisted on deploying to Afghanistan despite senior-level opposition and did a great deal to help wounded veterans, such as through the Invictus Games."
He continued: "I think the reasons he was omitted were his efforts to undermine the royal family in recent years, plus his comments about how he was trained in the army to see the enemy as less than human and pieces on the chess board, which could easily be used to radicalize jihadists.”
Colonel Kemp concluded: "I suspect the editors would have considered him as a suitable candidate and omitted him for those reasons, although with a cast of only 200, many even more notable Sandhurst alumni have also been left out."
The Telegraph reported on the expert opinions.