ROYAL COUPLE VISIT WATTISHAM AIRFIELD FOR MEDAL CEREMONY

THE DUCHESS OF CORNWALL APPEARED TO GINGERLY PAT HER HUSBAND ON THE BOTTOM AS HE PEERED INTO AN APACHE HELICOPTER, RECENTLY DURING A PRESENTATION CEREMONY OF OPERATIONAL SERVICE MEDALS TO MEMBERS OF 4 REGIMENT ARMY AIR CORPS AT WATTISHAM AIRFIELD IN IPSWICH, SUFFOLK. THE CEREMONY WAS HELD TO HONOR THE HELICOPTER CREWS WHO HAD FOUGHT IN AFGHANISTAN. THE ROYAL COUPLE AWARDED MORE THAN 100 CAMPAIGN MEDALS TO SERVICEMEN AND WOMEN FROM THE REGIMENT WHO FLEW AND MAINTAINED APACHE HELICOPTERS DURING FIGHTING WITH THE TALIBAN BETWEEN MAY 2008 AND MAY THIS YEAR. IN A SHORT SPEECH, PRINCE CHARLES TOLD THE SOLDIERS THEIR CONTRIBUTIONS GAVE HIM 'ENORMOUS PRIDE'. "YOUR ABILITY TO APPEAR IN THE RIGHT PLACE AT THE RIGHT TIME AND DELIVER THE FIENDISH AMOUNT OF WEAPONRY THAT THESE ATTACK HELICOPTERS PROVIDE HAS MADE AN ENORMOUS DIFFERENCE TO OPERATIONS ON THE GROUND", HE SAID. PRINCE CHARLES THEN THANKED THE FAMILIES OF THE SOLDIERS FOR THEIR SUPPORT AND REFLECTED ON THE TIME WHEN HIS SON, PRINCE HARRY, WAS SERVING IN THE WAR ZONE. HE SAID: "I KNOW ONLY TO WELL, HAVING MY YOUNGEST SERVING FOR A PERIOD IN AFGHANISTAN, JUST WHAT IT IS LIKE BEING A PARENT OR AS ONE OF THOSE LEFT BEHIND. SO I JUST WANTED, ON THIS OCCASION, TO THANK ALL OF THE FAMILIES FOR THE MORAL SUPPORT THEY PROVIDE AND WHAT THEY GO THROUGH WHEN THEIR LOVED ONES ARE AWAY. I THINK SOMETIMES THAT SUPPORT IS TAKEN FOR GRANTED BUT I CAN ASSURE YOU THAT I MOST CERTAINLY DON'T." AFTER THE PRESENTATION OF MEDALS, CHARLES AND CAMILLA MET THE SOLDIERS AND THEIR FAMILIES.