I saw an article in the paper yesterday showing a picture of prince Harry sitting behind a machine gun on a sand bag and smiling at the camera.

To me it looked like a very awkward position to fire a machine gun from.

Any experts out there who have seen the picture and care to comment?

Tom W

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1. He's a Prince
2. Great adventure? The kid has balls, he choose to go fight and his job as a Forward Air Traffic Controller is a very difficult job, in fact its one of...if not the most difficult military occupations.
3. Its a tripod mounted machine gun...google it. furthermore do you think he was firing the gun when the picture was taken? I asked my 6 year old the question and she answered it with ease.

I think I did see a clip of him firing the gun.

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You can fire a mounted machine gun in the sitting position, generally you watch your fire and tracers to walk the bullet into the target.

The chances of an officer being the gunner aren't that great, anyway. The whole thing is probably set-up so Harry can show his grandchildren that he was in the war. Like practically every other soldier or sailor or marine since cameras. There's a picture of my on a AA gunmount somewhere and my GQ station was a freaking engineroom! Wonder if he got a tat, too?

I don't understand why you feel the need to ridicule me. I don't do that to you.

I did not mean to make fun of him though I can see how you might have thought so from my words. I do think the picture was a set up and wondered if he had ever actually fired the gun. This is what prompted my question.

Did you look at the picture? It looks to me as if he is about to slide off the sand bag and if the gun has any recoil at all it would push him right off.

I can see it is a tripod mount.

So, if you have nothing positive to offer I invite you to dry up and blow away.

Tom W

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[SIGPIC] Diesel loving autocrossing grandpa Architect. 08 Dodge 3/4 ton with Cummins & six speed; I have had about 35 benzes. I have a 39 Studebaker Coupe Express pickup in which I have had installed a 617 turbo and a five speed manual.[SIGPIC]

..I also have a 427 Cobra replica with an aluminum chassis.

I think its pretty cool. Someone in his position of entitlement would usually have many other easier paths to follow.

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It worked. I was filled with doubt about the fact that I deserved to be his subject just because of who his parents are, but now that he can shoot a machine gun I am more than happy to submit. Long live the King!

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Now you can ***** about the USA!

I think you don't like him because he has balls.

Yep, and isnt the machine gun team thats actually qualified for the weapon in charge of lugging it around and setting it up? Meanwhile can remember hearing awhile ago when Harry signed up that he was lousy shot at the range, barely qualified for small arms. Apparently suffered alot of hazing at boot camp too, got his rifle stolen at one point - not keepin an eye on it.

Here's a link from Michael Yon. If you haven't read any of his dispatches about the war, I engourage you to do so. Very enlightening and a different view than the mainstream press. http://www.michaelyon-online.com/wp/a-prince-and-a-soldier.htm

John

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In addition to Michael Yon's story (Mr. Yon has probably the best coverage of Iraq and Afghanistan out of all) here's one from the Post discussing the media angle and the voluntary blackout agreed to by the British Press. Credit to the Brits for keeping the blackout on Prince Harry. I thought that was impossible today but I'm glad to see that it's not.

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Link? I know someone that knows someone that was a the forefront of keeping him out of Iraq that tells the exact opposite of that, apparently you can't get into the unit he is in with poor marksmanship.

Photo-op for sure, but again the fact that he is there---voluntarily speaks volumes.

I remember doing a training weekend (ROTC) at Ft. McCoy back in college...the standing rule was, "Whoever is on the "hump" crew for the Machine Gun are the only ones who get to fire it!"

True...

The down side?

#1.) Humping it...

#2.) Cleaning that d**n thing...they have got to be the dirtiest weapons, after firing...3 people, three and a half FREAKING HOURS. (We were newbies...had to learn how to disassemble, clean and reassemble from square 1...)

BTW, I ran across a picture of my father, just after the Korean Conflict, working the same thing, at NCO School, in Germany...he and his "buddy" were both smiling for the camera...probably the only smiles those two had during their training...

.

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