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The Duchess of Cambridge is back! Kate stepped out for her first engagement in over two months on Wednesday, Sept. 15, visiting RAF Brize Norton in Oxfordshire. Prince George ’s mom looked business chic for her return to royal duties post-summer break wearing a neutral double-breasted Reiss blazer, which she teamed with a white blouse and navy trousers.
During the outing, Kate met with individuals who supported the UK’s evacuation of civilians from Afghanistan and was given a tour of a C17 Globemaster transporter plane. Wing Commander Calvin Bailey told PEOPLE that the Duchess wanted to hear the young aircrews’ stories.
“They want to tell their story. They want to say, ‘This is hard. I did this. This is what I feel proud about.’ And she gave that to them today,” he told the magazine. “They were just so important. And so for us there‘s a lot of necessary catharsis. We need to share our stories and we need to get them out. And that’s what the media allows us to kind of do — because it means, for them, their parents will see them on the news tonight and hear their stories. It was priceless.”
“You can tell her, you can have a joke with her and there‘s stuff there that will always be between them. She was having a very personal discussion with them. Some of that would never leave that crowd,” the Wing Commander added.
Kensington Palace tweeted pictures from the royal mom of three’s engagement writing, “Thank you to all the incredible people involved in #OperationPitting, the largest humanitarian aid operation for over 70 years, which saw 15,000 people flown out of Kabul in August by the @RoyalAirForce.”