Huddersfield Masons provide ‘buddy’ boost for Afghanistan troops

Nov 5 2009 By Dave Himelfield

THE FREEMASONS are boosting armed forces’ morale in Afghanistan with personal gift packs.

Members of Albert Edward Lodge, at Greenhead, are posting parcels of goodies to servicemen posted in Afghanistan where morale has taken a battering after Tuesday’s atrocity which left five British soldiers dead.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the killing of five the British soldiers by a rogue Afghan policeman.

The servicemen – three from the Grenadier Guards and two from the Royal Military Police – died when the officer turned his gun on them at a checkpoint in Nad-e-Ali in Helmand Province on Tuesday.

Another six British soldiers and two Afghan policemen were wounded in the shooting, which sent shockwaves through the coalition mission in Afghanistan.

The masons’ gift packages, which contain everything from sweets to cosmetics to books, are sent in masonic Buddy Boxes, which have been co-ordinated by the Ministry of Defence.