Prince William is again on the job in Wales.
On Tuesday, July 9, the Prince of Wales, 42, was photographed visiting RAF Valley in wet Anglesey for the primary time because the Royal Honorary Air Commodore of the Royal Air Power station. It was introduced that King Charles had appointed him as Air Commodore in August 2023.
It was a return to a well-recognized place for Prince William, because it’s the place he labored in the course of the early years of his marriage to Kate Middleton. The royal was based mostly at RAF Valley whereas working as an RAF search and rescue pilot from 2010 to 2013.
RAF Valley is the one Royal Air Power station in Wales and residential of the No. 4 Flying Coaching Faculty, which is tasked with coaching the subsequent technology of fighter pilots in addition to making ready aircrew for mountain and maritime operations world wide.
Throughout his go to, the Prince of Wales toured the hub and met personnel to be taught extra about their each day operations and life at RAF Valley, which is the second-largest employer on the island, and related with the households of these stationed there. William started on the Air Visitors Management Tower, the place he checked out the management rooms and heard concerning the ongoing $56 million mission to refurbish the bottom’s second runway.
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He then moved to the hearth and rescue station, the place he met crew members and took part in a simulated fireplace response train. The division delivers year-round airfield rescue firefighting and structural firefighting cowl for RAF Valley in addition to additional assist for the station’s reduction touchdown floor, RAF Mona.
The inheritor to the throne then frolicked with engineers, flight instructors and trainees earlier than presenting the Prince of Wales Award. The annual prize acknowledges the highest Certified Flying Teacher throughout the No. 4, and this 12 months went to Flight Lieutenant Jake Fleming.
In a key assembly, Prince William met members of the RAF Mountain Rescue Service, which is on fixed name for search and rescue assist, plane post-crash and incident administration and medical help within the mountains. The royal heard concerning the crew’s experiences offering life-saving assist within the native space.
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Prince William launched into an aerial profession within the army in 2009, becoming a member of C Flight, 22 Squadron as Lieutenant Wales (a nod to King Charles’ Prince of Wales title on the time, which William now holds) at RAF Valley in September 2010. He served as a search and rescue pilot for 3 years, throughout which he undertook 156 search and rescue operations, a routine operational deployment to the Falkland Islands and certified as an operational Captain, his royal bio outlines.
The Prince of Wales left operational duties with the Armed Forces in September 2013, shortly after the delivery of his first little one, Prince George. He later retrained as an Air Ambulance Pilot and labored for East Anglian Air Ambulance from 2015 to 2017.
Prince William and Princess Kate’s particular connection to Wales deepened when King Charles introduced in his first speech as monarch that his eldest son and daughter-in-law have been named the Prince and Princess of Wales. The standard titles have been for the inheritor to the throne and his spouse for hundreds of years, and a royal supply instructed PEOPLE that the couple was targeted on “deepening the belief and respect of the folks of Wales over time.”
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The couple visited Wales for the primary time since changing into the Prince and Princess of Wales as quickly as they may — on September 27, 2022, in the future after the royal household’s mourning interval for the late Queen Elizabeth got here to an finish.
“He’s throwing himself into the brand new function,” Rev. Steven Bunting, who hosted the couple at St. Thomas’s Church in Swansea, instructed PEOPLE. “The truth that they’ve come straight right here on day one says all of it.”
Prince William stepped out solo for his newest engagement in Wales, as Princess Kate, 42, privately prioritizes her well being outdoors of the highlight. The Princess of Wales is continuous to endure remedy for most cancers and appeared at her first royal occasion this 12 months at Trooping the Color on June 15.
