Stonehill College football student-athlete Brian Benvie Jr. wants to be a police officer some day. He already is plenty good -- and getting better -- at serving and protecting as a tackle on the right side of the Skyhawks' offensive line.

A member of the U.S. Army Reserves, Benvie spent the 2002 and 2003 seasons working his way from backup to starter, but he's just now getting the opportunity to enjoy a third season of Stonehill football after answering the call to serve and protect his country as a military policeman in Iraq.

Military service runs in the family. Benvie's grandfather was a World World II veteran. One of his brothers, Matt, 17, recently completed basic training and is now in the Army Reserves. Benvie's father is a 26-year veteran of the Reserves and has served as a command sergeant major in Iraq and Kuwait. There are a host of uncles who have followed the same path.

Benvie joined the Reserves when he was a senior in high school. A phone call in January 2004 -- two seasons of football after Benvie arrived at Stonehill -- marked the beginning of an 18-month interruption in his intercollegiate athletics career and opened the door to a different reality. He was one of 11 members of the 94th Military Police Company of Londonderry, New Hampshire, who were activated for duty.

"I was prepared for it," Benvie said of the call. "They'd been telling us that there was a good chance they would be taking us, because MPs were in short supply."

After two weeks of training with a military police unit in Puerto Rico and a two-week training period in Kuwait, Benvie was assigned to the Abu Ghraib prison, where he was responsible for guarding detainees.

Going into the 11-month tour of duty, Benvie said he was expecting the worst, given what he had seen on television.

"It seemed like a disaster area," he said. "Throughout training soldiers had been told to expect the worst-case scenario and a high level of danger. While that helped with preparation, the experience turned out to be very different than what it looks like on television. It was a lot better than I thought it would be. The people we met were really nice. We were never really in too much danger. It wasn't too bad."

At Abu Ghraib, Benvie put in 12 hour days -- six hours in one of the towers surrounding the prison grounds and six hours on the ground patrolling. Free time was spent in the gym lifting weights, watching movies and playing video games.

By his own admission, it took time adjusting to being so far away from home and living on five to six hours of sleep each night. Benvie bridged the distance between the Easton, Massachusetts, campus and Iraq through e-mail exchanges with Stonehill head football coach Chris Woods. The team also sent care packages to Benvie during his tour of duty.

Of his time in Iraq, the friendships he formed with fellow soldiers stand out the most, as well as seeing the looks on children's faces when they visited family members at the prison.

"We always had something for them like a stuffed animal or piece of candy," said Benvie. "They were always very happy and would give us a thumbs up."

Benvie's tour of duty ended this past winter and he used the months leading up to the fall to adjust to civilian life. This fall, he returned to school and to the gridiron and has since resumed his starting post at right tackle.

The junior criminal justice major has just over two years left in his commitment to the Reserves and believes a second tour of duty may be likely. In the meantime, he is just happy to be back on the football field.

"It is good to be playing football again. I missed it a lot while I was over there," he said. "The two weeks of preseason camp are not the same as a game. Hitting someone with a different color jersey is a lot more fun."