Prince William Says Goodbye to Life as an Air Ambulance Pilot as He Looks Back at "Daunting" Rescues

"I am proud to have served with such an incredible team of people," he writes in The Eastern Daily Press

By Zach Johnson Jul 27, 2017 1:55 PMTags
Prince William, PilotStefan Rousseau WPA - Pool/Getty Images

Prince William did his country proud.

Before his final shift as a pilot for the East Anglian Air Ambulance Thursday, the 35-year-old Duke of Cambridge wrote editorial for The Eastern Daily Press to look back at his time served.

William announced in January that he would be leaving the EEAA; he and Kate Middleton would also leave Amner Hall, their family's country home, to live in Kensington Palace full-time.

After flying rescue helicopters with the Royal Air Force for three years, the prince joined the EEAA in 2015. "Over the past two years I have met people from across the region who were in the most desperate of circumstances. As part of the team, I have been invited into people's homes to share moments of extreme emotion, from relief that we have given someone a fighting chance, to profound grief. I have watched as incredibly skilled doctors and paramedics have saved people's lives. These experiences have instilled in me a profound respect for the men and women who serve in our emergency services, which I hope to continue to champion even as I leave the profession," he wrote. "I am hugely grateful for having had this experience."

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"From the moment I joined, when that phone rang at the base for the first time, it was clear that I was a fellow professional, a pilot with a job to do—in such a team there can be no other option," the prince wrote, "but still I am grateful to my colleagues for accepting me so readily."

"As a pilot, my job is to get the medical team to the patient as quickly and safely as possible, so they can give treatment as soon as possible after injury," he said. Though they are dispatched to just one percent of ambulance call outs, it "can mean the difference between life and death."

In the last two years, William recalled, "I have watched our medical team perform surgery on a patient within minutes of jumping off the helicopter—their level of skill is astounding." In fact, he's constantly amazed by the "level of skill" his colleagues regularly demonstrated. "As a team, we travel to some very daunting incidents and we have been though some incredibly tough times together, witnessing some appalling tragedies," he wrote. "One of the first call outs I made was to a young man who had committed suicide; it was an incredibly tough day and had a profound effect on all of us, not least in my determination now to draw attention to this issue."

"Another rescue that sticks in my mind was to a young man who was involved in a road accident. His uncle in the car with him sadly didn't survive, and I was sure that from what we were faced with he wouldn't either—but thanks to the skills of our medical team he is alive today," wrote William, who will soon ramp up his royal duties. "We were first on scene and in such circumstances we all had to pitch in to fight to save the young man's life. It is days like this, when you know you have made a difference, that give you the determination to keep going."

William made sure to thank members of the community "who fund, support and keep the air ambulance flying." In conclusion, the prince wrote, "As I hang up my flight suit, I am proud to have served with such an incredible team of people who save lives across the region every day."

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