by Walter K Tuzeneu,  Past Master, Ocean Lodge No. 89

I was recently privileged and honored to hear a report of Freemasonry at it's best, yet it was under the most horrific conditions you could possibility imagine. My son-in-law and Brother, William Manigold, who is the current President of High Twelve, called me on the phone and said he would pick me up for a High Twelve meeting. He wanted me to attend because he had special speaker coming that I would appreciate. I was rewarded, refreshed and reminded of the privilege and honor of being a member of our Great Fraternity.

Speaking at the luncheon was Captain Ian Cairns, a decorated member of the New Jersey Army National Guard, serving with an Embedded Training Team. They were sent to Afghanistan last year to provide guidance and support to that country’s national police and army. He is paratrooper, an expert commando and an Army Ranger and has served three tours of duty.

Captain Cairns is also a Master Mason as is his brother and father. He has also presented the lectures for all three degrees. His father and brother were overjoyed when he was appointed a Grand Chaplin about 1998.

In his talk, Captain Cairns described several occasions of combat activity, where the help he received was from masons. There were four masons in addition to himself on the team  that he recognized by a hand shake, and later confirmed by display of the correct points for acceptance in masonry.

Captain Cairns’ most spellbinding incident was about getting help to transport several severely wounded casualties airlifted to a field hospital for treatment. The team was serving as first responders when a suicide bomber killed 20 civilians and wounded 30 others at a local market. With only two medical professionals on site, the rest of the team had to act as doctors and perform life-sustaining treatment with virtually no supplies for more than five hours until a helicopter could reach the field triage site.

Captain Cairns’ urgent call for air transport was received by Spanish troops who were not permitted to go beyond the no fly zone established by International Authority. His team and the wounded, was twenty miles past the perimeter of the no fly zone.

At this point after reviving one captured and severely wounded Taliban four times, the ordeal was taking it's toll on the team. They were becoming frustrated, angry at the prospect of getting nearly fifty severely wounded and dying to a hospital.

He was tired, angry and near the breaking point. He finally grabbed the area phone and sent the only message he could think of to get help if the right people were listening, "Oh Lord, My God, is there no help for the widow's son?".** The entire area heard the message and one in particular, a British officer and a Mason, recognized the desperate situation.

He responded to Captain Cairns that he would ask permission to cross the no fly zone, a distance of fifty miles, to reach them. When the British officer was officially denied permission to cross, he subsequently defied his commander and flew his Chinook helicopter across the zone. With a crew of twelve combat solders, upon landing he ordered four members of his crew, who were also masons, to station themselves at the four comers of area, and protect all within this area until he returned. He knew they could be depended upon to the follow his order.

Captain Cairns respect, devotion and requests for help which he knew he could depend on, exemplifies what Masonry should and can be. It made me realize the responsibility we accept when we are made Master Masons. I may never have faced a problem of helping and saving wounded and dying, however, listening to Captain Cairns’ story made me feel my sixty five years of participation were important.

Editor's Note: ** This phrase is no longer a secret. It was in Dan Brown's book "The Lost Symbol" and can be found everywhere on the Internet.
(Edited 2009-11-13)

New Jersey: Old Masonic temple full of mysteries
By Alex Biese

16 February 2008

ASBURY PARK PRESS, NJ

If these walls could talk, they wouldn't say much. Three stories above Manasquan's Norman Rockwell-esque downtown, there silently sits a scene right out of "Indiana Jones" — a nearly century-old temple built by a secret society that left it behind more than 50 years ago.

The Masonic Temple, at 168-170 Main St., was built by the Goodwin Royal Arch Chapter of the Freemasons in 1923, but was lost in a sheriff's sale in 1953. While impressed by the grandeur of their third-floor, one-room temple, current building owners Gerhard and Christine Angersbach of Brick said they're not exactly sure what remnants — such as orb-topped columns, hieroglyphic-covered walls and the triangular symbol on the tile floor — mean.

Although brought to the forefront of popular culture thanks to recent works such as the book and movie, "The Da Vinci Code," and the film "National Treasure," the Free and Accepted Masons remain shrouded in mystery. And they also remain part of a myth almost as old as America itself — that the Great Seal of the United States, complete with an all-seeing eye and an unfinished pyramid, is the stamp of the Masons, a fraternal society, that has existed for ages.

Howie Damron is a Master Mason in Ohio with quite a list of accomplishments in our craft of Freemasonry. I have borrowed a short paragraph from his website which describes a little about him. Please visit his website at http://www.howiedamron.com for the full story and some clips from Howie's great Masonic music.

... "He has recently been named National/ International Ambassador of Scottish Rite and Blue Lodge Freemasonry and his albums “Hiram’s Call” and “The Masonic Touch” are being ordered worldwide by the Brotherhood. His newest compositions, “I’m Living DeMolay” and his daughter Karisa Damron's new song she just wrote and recorded called “Follow the Eastern Star” have moved both of there careers up into new levels. Both Howie and Karisa claim, “It's not for fame and fortune that we do what we do but the facts are it’s who we are and what we love and it’s pure pleasure that we see it as a mission of helping lives to understand what we already know and that is that life is so well worth living and the teachings of Freemasonry is needed worse today than ever in the history of the craft and that’s thousands of years”." ...

This story appeared in the September 5, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.

Inside the Masons
The fraternal order has long been the target of conspiracy theories and hoaxes.
Here's the real story.
By Jay Tolson

The 1820s looked as though they would be the best of times for the special relationship between the fraternal order of Freemasonry and the young American nation. It wasn't just because so many prominent members of the founding generation--George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, and indeed 13 of the 39 signers of the Constitution--had been members. It was also because the rapidly growing republic and the fraternal society still held so many ideals in common. American republican values looked like Masonic values writ large: honorable civic-mindedness, a high regard for learning and progress, and what might be called a broad and tolerant religiosity. Indeed, says Steven Bullock, a historian at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a leading scholar of the Masonic fraternity in America, Freemasons "helped to give the new nation a symbolic core."

Not for nothing were the compass, square, and other emblems associated with Freemasonry emblazoned everywhere, even on jewelry, furniture, and table settings belonging to Masons and many non-Masons as well. Nor was it insignificant that a goodly number of Americans thought--erroneously but justifiably--that the Great Seal of the United States itself contained Masonic symbols. It was both a tribute and a liability to the brotherhood that people saw the influence of Freemasonry even where it didn't exist.