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By Lance Cpl. Sean P. McGinty
Multi-National Forces-West
CAMP HABBANIYAH, Iraq -- There's no doubt about it. Iraqis love football.
Not American football, but soccer. You can hardly go on a daytime convoy or patrol without seeing children and men playing the game on the street, and it's nearly impossible to travel through an Iraqi army base without seeing some of the soldiers kicking a ball around.
The Marines at the 1st Iraqi army division Military Transition Team know this too. In fact, they'll sometimes grab an interpreter or two and go play soccer with the "undi," or Iraqi soldiers.
But then one of them, Cpl. Charles S. Hayes, gunner and team armorer, 1st IA Div. MiTT, from Iva, S.C., had an idea. How much would they like American football?
With a hope and a prayer Hayes grabbed a couple of his Marines and a few others from the 2nd Air, Naval Gunfire Liaison Company on Camp Habbaniyah, as well as two interpreters and went out looking for a pick-up game.
He got just that. After Hayes and his crew got turned down by a large group of jundi playing a soccer match, he found a much smaller group just kicking the ball around on a big field.
Perfect, he thought. Hayes and his Marines ran over to the group, and through their interpreter, Michael G. Mondalek, a Department of Defense interpreter with 1st IA Div. MiTT, they asked if they wanted to play football.
The jundi from 1st IA Div.'s engineers and bomb-disposal squad were reluctant. They didn't know how to play American football. Okay, Hayes thought. He rephrased the question.
"Let us teach you how to play American football," he told the jundi.
So they played, but not without some hiccups at first.
"We had guys running the wrong way with the ball and playing defense when their team was on offense," Hayes said. When one of the jundi on defense intercepted the ball, he ran the wrong way, all the way into his own team's end-zone.
"We'll give him the points," Hayes laughed.
But with the help from Mike, the interpreter, the jundi got it down.
"They were good. They learned pretty quickly and they did a good job," Capt. Daniel C. Lammers, military police adviser for the 1st IA Div. MiTT, from Dexter, Mich. said.
Not only did they learn quickly, but they ran quickly. The conditioning from soccer must have gotten them used to sprinting.
"These guys could play, they were fast," Hayes said. And they were having fun too.
The jundi welcomed back the Marines and told them that anytime they wanted to play, they were up for another game.
| Date Taken: | 02.23.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 02.26.2008 15:11 |
| Story ID: | 16742 |
| Location: | CAMP HABBANIYAH, IQ |
| Web Views: | 117 |
| Downloads: | 105 |
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