Ed Artis and Jim Laws, knights of the 21st century, saw the war in Afghanistan as an opportunity to live out their fantasies of mediaeval chivalry.
Their style and attempts to help hungry Afghans may not be to the taste of established aid agencies, whose focus is more on the longer-term needs of the people they try to help.
But the two Americans, both in their 60s and members of a US order of the Knights of Malta, are unrepentant.
"We know some people don't like us, but we just think `well, screw you,'" says Laws. "It may be just a drop in the bucket but we still think we can make a difference."
Professing a penchant for "high adventure and saving lives," the two men came to northern Afghanistan with a 15-tonne truck of wheat paid for by private donations.
Dressed in paramilitary gear with the stars and stripes emblazoned on their shoulders and the title of "Sir" on their business cards, the two blend latter-day patriotism with an older dream.
"We fashion ourselves on the mediaeval knights who protected the routes of the first and second crusades," says Artis, a former paratrooper and Vietnam veteran.
"We don't claim to trace our lineage right back there, but we do a lot of knight-like stuff."
On Wednesday they distributed it in a windswept refugee camp near the opposition-held town of Khoja Bahawuddin to families who have fled Taliban rule.
Now they plan to move on to the front-line north of the capital Kabul "to see how we can help the folks down there."
After previous missions in Afghanistan, Cambodia, the Balkans, Rwanda and Latin America, Artis and Laws are zealously patriotic but say they don't preach their Christian faith.
"We're not here to proselytize," says Laws, a white-haired Texan who was knighted in a ceremony in Kansas City.
"But we've had the American flag on our shoulders since the day we left. We're real proud of that and we want everyone to know this is American food they're getting."
US forces are almost four weeks into a war in Afghanistan, part of President George W. Bush's war on terrorism and a conflict which has sent thousands of refugees fleeing south towards the border with Pakistan.
But the Maltese knights decided their help was needed more in the opposition-held north, home to thousands of refugees who say they have fled persecution by Afghanistan's hardline Islamic Taliban rulers.
"We support what our government is doing and we feel we're doing our bit," says Artis. "Now we have this new threat of terrorism, this millennium needs its knights, dames and dragon-slayers just like the last."
Unlike other aid agencies which have strict codes of conduct, Artis and Laws say they have more room for manoeuvre.
"In these foreign parts, being a knight is great. People really get what we're doing," said Artis.
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