Prince William and the Air Ambulance

I don't think that any army officer is 'treated as one of the men'- I agree with annodomini.

No the people they are rescuing will not be vetted, neither will they be in much contact, William is not a paramedic he is there to fly the ambulance, the pilot keeps the ambulance ready to take off the paramedics deal with the injured , if the injured have to be winched into the craft the paramedics strps them the pilot operates the lifting gear from inside the craft

It is a very small space- I am sure they speak!

Well annie you're absolutely determined that he'll gain nothing from this experience, nothing from using his training up till now for the benefit of others, that nobody will talk to him. I sincerely hope that you are completely wrong. He'll do a wonderful job and will be widely appreciated I'm sure.

It won't be possible to vet everyone he comes in contact with or secure the areas he will be landing. Can't we just give the lad credit for not sitting in his ivory tower looking down on the rest of the world. At least he's trying to so something useful and using a skill we all paid for him to acquire.

Let's cut this guy a bit of slack! - even if you are a staunch republican, he didn't ask to be born into royalty and it seems to me he is doing his best to use his position to be of some use to everyone. Air ambulance staff work as a team and I am sure he will finish up as just one of them, even if there is a brief period of discomfort.

I am sure that once they get used to him he will just be part of the team. My experience of any sort of rescue team is that they are all the team and their job is to make people feel at ease and not to have a situation where you say 'your job is to pilot the helicopter- please keep your place and don't interact' !!
I do feel sorry for him, whatever he does is wrong for some people! At least this way he is doing a very useful and necessary job -and one where he meets ordinary members of the public.

Jane, I have not said he will gain nothing, I have not said no one will talk to him, I have not said his training as an air ambulance pilot would not benefit others, all I have said and still say - he will not be and could not be what some claim , one of the chaps , you certainly exaggerate Jane

All I have said is I think his is a lonely life when not within his own circle , not criticised him taking the job, not said he would be of no use, not said he will not mix, not said he he will be isolated from his crew

If you haven't said it Anniebach then you certainly implied it. I'm not sure why you think he won't be able to have a happy relationshipnwith the rest of the crew, after all, he managed it in Anglesey.

He isn't going to be 'one of the chaps' as in best friends but I can't see why he can't manage to be 'one of the chaps' on the job- he has managed it elsewhere. Lots of us don't want to be more than that with work colleagues.
They will soon forget who he is and just work as a team once the novelty wears off.

Ceesnan, your claim that I Implied it is just how you chose to twist what I did say , fact is I did not say or imply such claims , I don't 'do' imply, I just say

I think he will be "one of the chaps". It's in his nature.

Surely he won't be driving all the way back to Anmer Hall after every shift?

Holiday traffic is a nightmare on that road.

Helicopter? Perhaps he's got his own.

I am sure he is not going to do the ' call me sir' thing as previous generations have, he seems a likeable man

I'm not sure how you are so certain what PW and his colleagues won't be able to talk about? It's just your opinion, to which, of course, you are entitled, but that's all it is, just as others have theirs. No one can possibly know what a group of workmates will discuss - it's pure speculation.

Here is the report of Price William's first EAAA flight.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-33537719

I am a community first responder here in East Anglia and if I meet him on a call out I will be polite and helpful as always with all the emergency services staff. I have a lot of respect for all of them, and I was with an ambulance crew this morning on two successive calls. They were endlessly polite, good-humoured and deeply concerned for the welfare of their patients.

Ceesnan , I have never said I know, I have given my opinion. For me it's common sense , he will not unwind with a mug of tea and say much about home life, yes the baby is teething and we are shattered etc, will he say my mother in law will interfere ? I don't get on with my step mother? God my father can go on and on . Why do they keep within a circle ? Because they dare not chat as we do , and who can blame them. A chap in the navy told the press what Andrew said on the bridge . Those who think William will feel free to chat about everything may be right, I don't, he and his brother were damaged by their mother's friends telling all , it's obvious he will never let his children suffer as he and his brother did . He is constantly on guard poor man

Thank goodness for that! Do people really want their work colleagues telling them all that?
I certainly wouldn't be giving them all that information about my MIL etc.

Going back in the thread I agree with Anniebach my DD's ex was in Afghanistan when Harry was flown in and out. According to S it was mostly a publicity stunt to make "the people" back home believe he was "one of the lads".

Not sure about PW. He does seem okay from what we can see from a few staged photographs but given his "royal duties" he's hardly going to be a full timer with the air ambulance is he? I don't really care one way or t'other as I have no time for any of the royals. They are just people like the rest of us, pity they didn't realize it though.

I work with all men and they do "banter" between themselves. Not the way women do but in a slightly different way. Mostly Mickey taking of each other , and pulling each other up on anything. They are of a wide age range too and from different walks of life with different levels of qualifications from masters degrees to labourers. They are all the same. I honestly cannot see PW joining in with the kind of "men talk" I often hear.

Does any of it matter?

gillybob, they have an excellent PR machine . I couldn't care less if W works 7 days or 1 day a week I just don't like this 'these two are just like us' which is just not true, just a new way of selling the windsors

I do understand that many feel motherly and protective towards these two men who will always be 'Diana's boys' when they are fifty. But not for me, each generation of Windsors become what the public want , it keeps them popular, they are brilliant at reinventing themselves

absent. Wild applause!