Ten things about Prince Harry Windsor‘s GQ Magazine cover’s, accompanying interview for war veterans awareness and sacrifice.
Hiking for charity is a royal thing to do:
In a world exclusive for the May issue, GQ meets Prince Harry and the Walking with the Wounded team as they prepare for their epic unaided trek to the North Pole, in an attempt to raise £2 million for charities focusing on the retraining and rehabilitation of injured British service personnel. Arctic experts give some of the disabled war veterans a 40-60% betting odds chance of completing the ambitious mission for a noble cause.
Who exactly is in the star line up of this Nanook of The North styled trek it out Posse?
Prince Harry is Patron of Walking with the Wounded, and the team comprises Captain Guy Disney, Private Jaco van Gass, Sergeant Steve Young, Captain Martin Hewitt, Founders Edward Parker and Simon Dalglish, Logistics and Training Guide Henry Cookson, and Polar Guide Inge Solheim.
Paid modeling for charitable causes is a royal thing to do as well for family traditions of charity. Chalk it.
Harry and the team were photographed by David Bailey in January 2011. A special edition front cover [pictured] will feature HRH Prince Harry, with a donation from each issue sold going to the Walking with the Wounded charity.
What frozen landscape sets can teach us about human rights beyond despair of the human price of war for veterans.
Founder Edward Parker comments of the wounded servicemen selected from the 100-plus injured who applied to undertake the challenge, “These four guys knew when they went toAfghanistan that they could get killed or wounded. The political whys and wherefores are not what we’re addressing here. These men are soldiers; this is what they do; it is their job. But what happens when they can’t go back to the day job through physical or mental injury? What happens to these men and women? We must not forget about them. They need assistance, support, money. They need help realising that, yes, their options have changed – drastically – but they can still have an impact they can still very much lead full and prosperous lives. These wounded personnel have immense courage; more so than ever before. The four guys going to the Pole with Walking with the Wounded are just the veneer on the wounded community; it is up to us and this expedition to show there is a future. If by walking 250 miles across a frozen landscape, we can inspire one disabled serviceman to lift himself up off the bed, or out of a wheelchair, or out from the depths of hopelessness, we have done our job.”
Gratitude as a trait of brotherhood. Not taking an individuals personal sacrifice to serve others lightly.
Royal Patron Prince Harry, who is joining the other eight men on the ice for up to a week, said in a message of support: “This extraordinary expedition will raise awareness of the debt that this country owes to those it sends off to fight – only for them to return wounded and scarred, physically and emotionally. The debt extends beyond immediate medical care and short-term rehabilitation. These men and women have given so much. We must recognise their sacrifice, be thankful, so far as we can ever repay them for it.”
Norwegian Nordic Austin Powers sense of humor in tricky drifting conditions of navigating the Arctic world on top of the ice capped oil rich terrain.
Inge Solhiem, the expedition’s Polar Guide, adds “Harry’s training has been going very well: he has the right attitude. I’m sure Harry has healthy concerns about the dangers – as he should. You have no idea how different the pole is from everything else on the planet. The old Norwegian explorers called it the “devil’s dance floor”. It is unpredictable. Deadly. If you’re not paying attention it will just slap you… You can walk ten miles in one day, pitch your tent overnight, and the ice will have drifted you back eleven miles in the opposite direction.”
Jaco van Gass on Afghanistan as a door
Private Jaco van Gass [pictured, right, with Capt. Guy Disney], who lost his left arm (as well as almost two-thirds of his left leg tissue), is one of the chosen team. He says “I knew what I was fighting for out there. I wasn’t just doing what the army told me to do, I wanted to be there. I loved my job and I still do. I loved every second of it and that’s why I don’t regret what happened to me. There’s not a day that goes by now when I don’t think about Afghanistan and wish I was back out there; my battalion, the Parachute Regiment, is out there now, out on the front line. I know that door has closed, but new ones are opening. I am ready for these new challenges; I am ready for the future.”–Excrutiating injuries.
Veteran Injuries have greatly increased dramatically for UK soliders
The number of single, double and triple amputees and severely injured soldiers returning from Afghanistan annually has risen dramatically since the war began in 2001. Figures from Defence Analytical Services and Advice (DASA), part of the Ministry of Defence, mirror the numbers compiled by independent charities for limbless service personnel, and the news is shocking. Look back as far as 2006 and the number of UK servicemen who sustained partial or complete limb amputation that year in Afghanistan as a result of injuries sustained was seven. In 2007 it had reached 12, by 2008 numbers were up to 30, come 2009 and 55 were recorded and by the end of 2010 this annual figure had risen to 76 troops who had suffered “traumatic or surgical amputation” of one or more limbs. No one has any doubts this figure will rise again in 2011. From the period 1 January 2006 to 15 January 2011, 1,608 UK military and civilian personnel were admitted to UK field hospitals, categorised as Wounded In Action, as part of operation in Afghanistan, whereas 248 were categorised as Seriously Injured and 235 Very Seriously Injured.
I hope these lads take some Afghan Biscuits with them. Afghan biscuits help your skip along when hiking. One shouldn’t hit the arctic without them in your pack. They’re chocolate biscuits made with (skippy maybe) cornflakes in them. Perfect for hiking, like scroggin biscuits add strength with triple New Zealand butter and a dash of sugar via Fiji with extra dark chocolate lashings of icing for good luck and good measure.
The full feature from Walking With the Wounded expedition appears in the May issue of British GQ, out 31st March. Proceeds from this special issue, with two collector’s edition covers, will be going to Walking with the Wounded.
Click here to read what happened when David Bailey travelled to Afghanistan
This article shared via GQ’s website to assist the injured of Britain’s contribution to war via Hollywood California USA.
~Posted by Horiwood.Com, Hollywood California USA. 3.26.11~
