New Year's Eve Photo of 23-Year-Old Prince Harry in Secret Military Post Resurfaces

On the last day of 2007, Prince Harry wasn't celebrating New Year's Eve at a wild party or festive royal engagement. Instead, he was serving in a secret location on the front lines in Afghanistan with his fellow British troops.

Yep, you read that right. The young royal, who was just 23 years old at the time, served as a forward air controller in the southern province of Helmand, where he guided airstrikes toward suspected Taliban targets. And as it turns out, the Household Cavalry officer had been serving in Afghanistan since before Christmas 2007.

Now, a throwback photo of Harry in action has resurfaced—and it looks like he's totally nailing it.

JOHN STILLWELL / Getty Images

In the photo, which was taken on December 31, the prince is hard at work, talking to aircraft operating over Afghanistan from JTAC Hill (Joint Tactical Air Co-ordination, a fort in Helmand Province).

Per The Guardian, Harry explained in an interview that one of his biggest responsibilities was preventing plane accidents. He said, "My job is to get air up, whether I have been tasked it a day before or on the day or when troops are in a contact [with the enemy]. Air is tasked to me, they check in to me when they come into the ROZ (restricted operating zone) and then I'm basically responsible for that aircraft."

The royal also detailed that while this was a major shift from royal life, he enjoyed the chance to be normal. He said, "It's bizarre. I'm out here now, haven't really had a shower for four days, haven't washed my clothes for a week and everything seems completely normal...I think this is about as normal as I'm ever going to get."

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With regards to whether or not he missed being back home, he added, "I honestly don't know what I miss at all: music, we've got music, we've got light, we've got food, we've got [non-alcoholic] drinks... It's nice just to be here with all the guys and just mucking in as one of the lads."

Prince Harry is just full of surprises, and we imagine that his late mom, Princess Diana, would be so proud.

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