July 15, 2008

by Corey McLaughlin, Special to Lacrosse Magazine Online

When I asked former Navy All-American and Los Angeles Riptide midfielder Graham Gill about possibly writing dispatches from Iraq, where he is now stationed as a pilot, I made the request over e-mail, by far the easiest and most efficient form of communication between the Middle East and the East Coast of the United States.

But even I was surprised by the swiftness of his response.

Fifteen minutes after I sent the proposal, I received a reply that began, "I'm in."

Gill, who led the Midshipmen to the 2004 NCAA title game, won't play this MLL season because of his duties in the war abroad, but he still manages to keep tabs on his Riptide teammates and the lacrosse world.

In what we intend to be weekly blog posts from Iraq, Gill will discuss topics ranging from Los Angeles' season to life "over there."

There are, of course, limits.

"A lot of the flying and other stuff we do out here, I can't really talk about," Gill wrote, "but I can definitely write about other things."

Below is Graham's introductory post. Starting next week, check back to Lacrosse Magazine Online each Thursday for more from Gill and LMO's ongoing coverage of the MLL.

I'm stationed on a base right now in Iraq. We have been flying a lot of missions out of here; I've been flying almost everyday. The schedule gets changed around all the time, but I'm flying about three days on, with one day off. Missions are long and most of the time pretty boring. The crews do all kinds of things to keep themselves busy and focused.

It's great to see the interactions between so many different types of people. It makes for a sitcom-type comedy. With around 11 or 12 people on board, and so many different personalities, things get pretty funny on a regular basis. Most of the time I try not to think about that [other] stuff too much. We all try to keep ourselves busy with anything other than conversations about how much longer we'll be here, and that makes the time go by pretty quick. But it's always inevitable that conversation turns to how bad we all want to get back to Hawaii, with our family, friends and civilization in general.

I can/will always talk about reading about the [MLL] games. I do it all the time and check for scores constantly. I can talk about all kinds of other stuff out here, too. I will mention about getting back home, but can't talk about exactly when we're leaving. Mission stuff is another thing that I can't talk about at all, as well as most of the "danger"-type stuff we encounter living over here. But definitely have some other things I can talk about, especially day-to-day stuff.

gg

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Graham Gill, a former Navy All-American and midfielder for the MLL's Los Angeles Riptide, corresponds with LMO's Corey McLaughlin from a naval base in Iraq. Keep tabs on Gill's travels with weekly updates beginning Thursday.

For more on the series or to send comments, contact Corey McLaughlin at corey.mclaughlin@gmail.com.