The ‘Buddy Box’ scheme for troops in Afghanistan has extra meaning for Neil Randall and Paul Greene.
Neil and Paul joined the Army as 16-year-old recruits back in 1974 and did the commando training course at Lympstone in Devon a year later. The pair went on to become friends and served in the Falklands. They are now Human Resources Manager at Plymouth-based guarding contractor Securi-Guard; and Major Paul Greene of 29 Commando Regiment Royal Artillery, who runs the scheme, respectively.
Securi-Guard chairman Bill Boyd initially offered help to the regiment and his son, MD Scott Boyd, has pledged ten boxes from the firm. Other staff are also busy filling their own boxes or donating items such as toiletries, food stuffs, books, pens and writing paper. The boxes go to Helmand Province, where the Plymouth based servicemen are on a six month tour of duty. “Our troops are performing a magnificent task under the most immense pressure, facing danger on a daily basis and I was happy to help Paul in whatever way I could to give the scheme a boost,” said Neil.
Each box is addressed to an individual soldier, who can then write back and thank the sender. It is a perilous deployment for the troops and on their last tour to Afghanistan a year ago they lost four men and several others returned home severely injured. Neil added: “These buddy boxes are a great way of helping to maintain morale and give our boys some much needed home comforts. A number of Securi-Guard staff are ex services personnel so we were delighted to get involved.”
Major Greene said the regiment had been overwhelmed by the generosity of the people of Plymouth and such has been the response, didn’t require any more boxes at this stage.
“We would like to thank Securi-Guard and everyone else in Plymouth who has responded so positively to the Buddy Box appeal,” said Major Greene. “We have been amazed by the generosity of people. Pensioners with very little to give have thought nothing about spending £15 on the contents of box. We cannot thank everyone enough.”
