I have a wonderful new view of Lady Camilla, new wife of Prince Charles.  Lady Camilla has not always been treated well by the UK's drive-by media.  Michael Yon's most recent post, gives us a new appreciation of this much maligned former mistress of the heir to the British Throne;

"Back at the base near Salisbury, where Lady Camilla was to come welcome the soldiers home and pin on some medals, the weather was cold and wet. There was much press gaggling about with giant lenses on their cameras and I thought to myself: Where were these press people when the soldiers needed them in Iraq? Some press were there, but more would have been better. More than a few soldiers and family members had wondered why it was that an American had to come to cover British soldiers for their families to learn about their service while a mostly-absent press nonetheless ran articles decrying them as incompetent cowards. Never mind. Never mind, I thought. Lady Camilla had been watching over 4 Rifles back when all these cameras were out of harm’s way, and it was going to make a lot of the soldiers happy to see that she would finally I was told, also get recognition for her devotion to duty. Besides which, I was momentarily distracted from my rant when LTC Patrick Sanders told me HRH Lady Camilla had read my website when she discovered I was writing about her soldiers.

4 Rifles Royal Colonel, Lady Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, at the medals ceremony."

Now you might say "she was just doing her duty as a member of the Royals", but then I would have to add this from Yon's post;

"So when the commander introduced me to Lady Camilla and we had our short and very public meeting before all those cameras, I told Lady Camilla that her handwritten letters to the soldiers were very important to them. That I could tell that they were cherished in a way that went beyond polite acknowledgment. In that brief exchange it was clear to this American with no sense of Royalty that her devotion to these soldiers also went beyond the expected call of duty. She had made it a point to know what they were going through and she had made it a point to let them know how valued their service to their country was in her esteem. Once the formal ceremony concluded the press slowly evaporated but she stayed for hours in the gym, spending time talking informally with any and all the soldiers and their families, without an entourage."

That's no prima donna!  Appreciation of heroes goes to the top of my "good guy" list!  That's sincerity.  Lady Camilla, you have my greatest respect.  May you and your family have a very Merry Christmas from this Southern Yank.