LONDON — To the troops he commands, he will be 2nd Lt. Wales -- as in, son of the Prince of.
A mixture of approval and national unease greeted confirmation from the Defense Ministry on Thursday that the nation's beloved Prince Harry is headed for Iraq.
Publicly, there was appreciation for the 22-year-old prince's determination to serve with his mates in the Household Cavalry Regiment, bound for a six-month deployment in southern Iraq this spring.
Privately, there was the dreadful image of the third in line to the British throne possibly staring out of an Islamic militant kidnap video.
"The decision to deploy him has been a military one, made by the chief of the General Staff, Gen. Sir Richard Dannatt, in conjunction with Cornet Wales' commanding officer," the ministry said in a statement, using the British cavalry title "cornet" for second lieutenant. "The Royal Household has been consulted throughout."
British royalty has a long history of service in the armed forces. Queen Elizabeth II was a uniformed driver in the Auxiliary Territorial Service during World War II, along with her sister, Princess Margaret. Harry's father, Charles, the Prince of Wales, earned his wings with the Royal Air Force in 1971, and his grandfather the Duke of Edinburgh served on the battleship Valiant during wartime in 1941.
The most recent royal to see action was Prince Andrew, Harry's uncle, who flew a Sea King helicopter as a decoy target accompanying British ships during the 1982 Falklands War.
But Iraq is a different thing altogether, especially at a time when this nation that has grave misgivings about its troops' deployment decided this week to begin drawing down more than one-fifth of its 7,100 military personnel there.
"1,600 out ... One in," the Sun newspaper said.
Prince Harry, the younger son of the heir to the throne and the late Princess Diana, has a special place among the royal family for the British public, who remember his bowed, freckled face as he walked solemnly behind his mother's coffin.
More recently, the tabloids have been full of his antics at London nightclubs.
Now, fresh from a 44-week training course at the elite Sandhurst Military Academy, followed by a four-month technical training course in Dorset, the prince is commanding a 12-member armored reconnaissance troop in the Blues and Royals regiment scheduled to deploy as early as April.
