Marine sees miracles in mayhem (Lt. Malstrom)

Posted on Wed, Jun. 01, 2005
A column by Kevin Leininger

Chaplain believes U.S. cause in Iraq is worth sacrifices.
Malmstrom: Bible has taken on new meaning

Seventeen of Lt. Eric Malmstrom’s fellow Marines have been killed since the 3rd Battalion, 25th Marine Regiment landed in Iraq in early March. But the carnage hasn’t shaken the Fort Wayne chaplain’s faith in a merciful God – or his belief in miracles.

Malmstrom taught seventh and eighth grades at Zion Lutheran Academy before his Cleveland-based reserve unit was activated in January, but for at least another four months he will be the spiritual adviser to 1,000 Leathernecks stationed near the Hadithah Dam, a hydroelectric complex on the Euphrates River northwest of Baghdad.

Malmstrom the teacher knows the region of the Euphrates and nearby Tigris River has long been called the “cradle of civilization.” Malmstrom the soldier, however, has witnessed a lifetime of barbarism there in just three months. If the irony has strengthened Malmstrom’s faith, it has also reinforced his conviction that America’s war on terror is a just one – despite the daily reports of deadly car bombings and ambushes.

Or, perhaps, because of them.

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