Falklands horrors left me ‘a changed man’ – Andrew
THE Duke of York returned from the Falklands War having “put away childish things and full in the knowledge of human frailty and suffering”, he has revealed in a post on his ex-wife’s Instagram account.
Andrew said his experience had taught him “war is the failure to keep peace”. It makes him “pray even more fervently for those in conflict today” and families “torn apart by the horrors they have witnessed”.
He flew missions as a Sea King helicopter pilot during the 1982 conflict.
Recently he has been forced to step down from official royal duties following the outcry over his relationship with convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein and his disastrous Newsnight interview in 2019.
A few weeks ago he reached a multi-million pound out-of-court settlement after Virginia Giuffre sued him in a US civil court for allegedly sexually assaulting her when she was 17 and trafficked by Epstein. The Prince denies any wrongdoing.
Andrew, 62, wrote more than 700 words about his Falklands’ experience, but the three posts were removed after about two hours from the Instagram account of Sarah, Duchess of York.
Beneath the last post, it said it was “written by HRH The Duke of York” before the “HRH” was deleted.
The Queen stripped Andrew of his honorary military roles in January and he gave up his HRH style in a dramatic fallout from his civil sex case.
In the first Instagram post, Sarah wrote: “I asked Andrew this morning for his reflections on the anniversary of his sailing from Portsmouth to the Falkland Islands 40 years ago.”
Andrew wrote: “As I sit at my desk on this cold crisp spring morning thinking back to April 1982, I’ve tried to think what was going through my mind as we sailed out of Portsmouth lining the flight deck of HMS Invincible.
“So whilst I think back to a day when a young man went to war, full of bravado, I returned a changed man.
“I put away childish things and false bravado and returned a man full in the knowledge of human frailty and suffering. My reflection makes me think even harder and pray even more fervently for those in conflict today, for those family’s (sic) torn apart by the horrors they have witnessed.”
Recalling coming under fire during the conflict, he wrote: “I was flying and saw a chaff shell fired from one of our ships that passed not that far in front of us. The terror, that was going to be that, just for a moment, has had a lasting and permanent effect on me.”