Is Prince Harry Coming to Camp Pendleton?

Is Prince Harry coming to Orange County-adjacent Camp Pendleton? The stars seem to be lining up that way–or at least the military orders are.

Newly hitched Prince Willy's hearty-partying little bro will soon be spending two months taking Apache helicopter training courses in Arizona and Southern California, according to his spokesman.
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Nick Loughran says the British
Army Air Corps captain “will be coming to the States at some point in
the next
couple of months for a handful of courses . . . in parts of Arizona and
California” to complete the final phases of his Apache helicopter
training. “Exercise Crimson Eagle,”
he explains, features “environmental training, live firing and
tactical
exercises.”

Folks in Arizona speculate that will bring Harry to the town
where Boeing's Apache was born, Mesa, which is to Phoenix what Orange
County is to Los Angeles (only much hotter . . . but it's a dry–oh
never mind).

Meanwhile, our own South County folks who often spy Apaches
chop-chop-chopping over the 5 freeway believe the SoCal half of Har's
deployment will be at Camp Pendleton.

After his time in sunny SoCal, the prince is scheduled
to return to Afghanistan, where he previously toured before being called back because his royal-ness made him a high-profile target. Don't exactly know what's changed about that, but as a
full-fledged Apache pilot, the 27-year-old could wind up on the . . .
yikes! . . . front lines by next summer, Loughran says.

Not to jinx a fellow who has already experienced enough tragedy for one otherwise charmed lifetime (his
mum's senseless death, England's abrupt exit from the last World Cup, Camilla Parker Bowles),
but one Marine was killed and five others were injured when a
helicopter went down during training exercises at Camp Pendleton on
July 6. At least for Harry's sake, that whirlybird was a Huey.

Anyone down San Clemente-Oceanside way know of any places he might want to hang out?

Matt Coker

OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.