THE SAS has asked veterans up to the age of 65 if they are willing to rejoin and fight on the front line, it has been revealed.
A former aide to Prince William and Kate said he received a letter from the regiment — whose motto is Who Dares Wins — asking if he was fit for missions.
Jamie Lowther-Pinkerton, 66, served in the Special Forces unit, which had the story of its origin told in BBC series SAS Rogue Heroes, until 1998 when he was 38.
The ex-Irish Guards officer then became a friend and principal private secretary to Princes William and Harry.
He said the letter, sent to all his former comrades, asked what they were “capable of”.
He said the options included “serving in the frontline unit, backroom boy, all the rest of it”.
The missive was part of an Army-wide effort to create a “strategic reserve” to draw on in times of crisis.
Mr Lowther-Pinkerton told the Rosebud podcast with broadcaster Gyles Brandreth: “It was quite amusing that all my friends who I rang up (asking) ‘Have you seen this form?’. We’d all put this one option saying, ‘We can’t go’. It would be quite interesting to see us all on our crutches!”
The top age veterans could be recalled would be increased from 55 to 65 under Labour’s Armed Forces Bill.
It lowers the mobilisation threshold for vets to include “national danger, great emergency or attack on the UK”.