Stories of Faith and Courage from the War in Iraq and Afghanistan

by Jane Hampton Cook

  “A reporter came up to me and said, ‘I want to tell you, I wouldn’t have gone through this city if it hadn’t been for your lieutenant. We were all scared to death, but his bravery convinced us to go with him.’”

  The battlefield is a primal place. Everyone wants to get out alive, yet so much is beyond one’s control, such as incoming fire. News of casualties hit hard, such as the death of Sergeant Peralta who, while mortally injured, grabbed a grenade thrown by insurgents and saved the lives of the four Marines with him.

  “The reporters who went in with us had to trust that we were going to take care of them. Everybody at some point has to surrender, to trust something bigger than self: the person next to them, the equipment, or God. But each individual had to learn to trust.”

  “In my own life I just felt so free and surrendered. It’s like the serenity prayer: Change the things I can and accept the things I can’t. I tried to the best of my ability to change the things I could by overseeing public affairs in the very best way. Surrendering to the divine order, I’m doing my part, and the outcome is not really up to me.”

  Captain Malugani found freedom in surrender. “Free in the sense of free to not free from. I was free to choose the way I was going to look at it, whether I was going to see grace, chaos, or both. I was free to be present or to shut down and suppress.”

  “What I did witness out there was those who believed in a divine order and surrendered to it, had a calmness and contentment about them. Those who didn’t have a belief in a heavenly being tended to be upset. Many days I missed my family and wanted to go home; however, when I chose to put my trust in the divine order, I had the openness to process what I was seeing and experiencing.”

  Prayer:

  Thank you for the gift of brotherly love that is willing to make the greatest of sacrifices.

  “If I give all I possess to the poor and surrender my body to the flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.” (1 Corinthians 13:3)

  February 18

  PREPARATION

  Capt. Amy Malugani, United States Marine Corps

  “In the midst of chaos there is also tremendous grace each moment. That is what I took with me into Fallujah. Serving with RCT-7, was one of the greatest experiences in my life,” Captain Amy Malugani explained.

  Malugani came home from her first Iraq deployment in March 2005. She returned for her second deployment in July 2005. “God is always preparing us for something.”

  Two years earlier Malugani was sent to the Philippines for an exercise that prepared her for Iraq. “While in the Philippines, I served with an infantry battalion thirteen hundred guys and two women. I was the only female officer. I couldn’t figure out why I was selected to accompany the unit at the time, but concluded that God was preparing me for something.

  “That’s something I love about the Marine Corps. Unexpected situations and circumstances challenge an officer, we grow sometimes seamlessly and sometimes unwillingly with each experience. Each incident came in a different light allowing me to experience something new or to share my knowledge with someone in need.

  “During my second tour in Iraq, my Marines went out west, while I remained at the headquarters with the commanding officer. The command element anxiously watched the operations unfold, praying our battalion would come back intact. This was not the case. I was devastated to learn that we had lost nine Marines. One casualty was a fellow officer, a great man with a smile that inspired everyone,” Malugani explained, noting that her faith upheld her when her friend was killed.

  Throughout her deployments, Malugani took religious education courses for confirmation in her church. Her faith proved a safe place for her to be, even allowing her to cry during the time of loss. The Marines under Malugani turned to her for strength. She wondered if they felt more comfortable to let their guard down and cry in front of her because she was a female.

  When the Marines came back from operations in western Iraq, they said “Hey, Ma’am, can I see you outside?” Many opened up to her. Maybe they thought that she had it, and thus, they could talk to her. Often words weren’t spoken.

  Chaos and grace coexist. “These are opportunities to see that faith is enough. I get so easily distracted; sometimes I forget that faith is enough.”

  Prayer:

  Thank you for using my past experiences for a good purpose in the future.

  “For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (1 Timothy 4:8)

  February 19

  IT IS WHAT IT WAS

  Capt. Amy Malugani, United States Marine Corps

  (Excerpt from an email Malugani sent January 1, 2006)

  It is what it is. Some laugh when I say this, some look like they are going to smack me, and some simply wonder if life can really be that simple. I say it because I need to hear it. It’s a good reminder that asking why is usually just a waste of time. The real question is how. This short little phrase is about acceptance and the precursor to action.

  Recently I incorporated this little phrase back into my life. I forgot how much peace and simplicity it brought me. Perhaps it’s because I am on my way home and craving the simple life so much. Or perhaps after two combat tours in one year I have learned what’s trivial and what’s important.

  Last night a friend and I discussed the book I am reading, The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis. The book is mostly about decisions and surrender. As the conversation progressed, it led to stories and analogies about letting go and letting God. We both kept coming back to the same point: it has to be a decision we make every day. Surrender is something that is done one day a time; the more we let go the more freedom we experience.

  Towards the end of our conversation, my friend looked at me and said, “Amy, it was what it was.” The exchange was a moment of clarity for me.

  What a simple phrase yet such a profound effect, well at least on this girl. Sometimes we hold onto old habits, people, places, and things because at some point in our life we needed them or so we thought to survive or succeed. However, there comes a point at which the spirit can no longer grow because there is not room for it to stretch out and expand. We have to make a decision to make room for the new; we have to make a decision to let go of the old. The simplest way to let go is to know and accept that it “was what it was” and now my life “is what it is.”

  Change isn’t bad. Sometimes it’s not good but most of the time it just “is.” My hope for all of you is that you will live life one day at a time and embrace the blessings God has for you each day.

  Prayer:

  Father, thank you for the new life I can have in you each day.

  “We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.” (Romans 6:4)

  February 20

  MARINE CLUB

  Todd Akin, United States Congressman, Missouri and father of Lt. Perry Akin, United States Marine Corps

  “God put in Perry’s heart the service of the Marine Corps,” Congressman Todd Akin (R-Missouri) explained of his son’s life-long desire to be a Marine.

  Akin passed down a principle found in Ephesians 2:10 to his six children. “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

  “What most people know intuitively is that God made us unique. That’s a very common thought. But the other part of this verse says ‘from the beginning of time, before the ages, God had a job that every single one of us are called and prepared to do for him,’” Akin explained.

  That desire to find a purpose in life begins early. Adults often ask children what they want to do when they grow up. Children may answer “be a fireman” or “be a doctor” but they often aren’t sure. What children do know is this: they want to do something.

  “Most people don’t really know what they want to
do at an early age but there’s something inside that’s guiding and pulling them in certain directions, so they try this or that. My belief is that every one of us has a sort of a destiny something we were created to do for the Lord.”

  Akin witnessed this guiding and pulling in his son. As a boy, Perry started a Marine club with his brothers and friends. They bought used uniforms and little wooden rifles from an army surplus store to use in their club.

  “They stood at attention in line. They raised the American flag on the flag pole. They tied pieces of clothes line to the top of trees. They took big steel pulleys and slid down the line, crashing into the ground. But they were tough and didn’t cry because the Marines don’t cry,” he reflected with a laugh.

  It was no surprise to Akin when Perry entered the Naval Academy. Perry’s decision to become a Marine was the workmanship of God, manifested in childhood.

  “And so it takes courage, a great deal of courage to chase the dream that God puts in your heart. Yet you can do it because you know the Lord is with you. And so that’s something that I taught to my children,” Akin explained.

  It’s never too late to seek God’s purpose for your life. It simply takes faith to ask God for direction and courage to follow where he leads.

  Prayer:

  Lord, give me the courage to pursue the dreams you have put in my heart.

  “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:10)

  February 21

  CHALLENGE TO TRUST IN GOD

  Todd Akin, United States Congressman, Missouri and father of Lt. Perry Akin, United States Marine Corps

  While at the Naval Academy, Perry Akin followed the dreams God placed in his heart. His senior year and subsequent training brought a few news-worthy moments to his dad, Congressman Todd Akin.

  “Father I would like to have permission to enter into courtship with your scheduler,” Perry requested. The young scheduler was Amanda, a member of Akin’s staff.

  “Not my scheduler?” the stunned congressman replied. “She’s seven years older than you are.”

  “Well, Dad, she’s a godly woman, and she’d make a really good wife even though she’s seven years older,” Perry responded.

  Congressman Akin agreed. His scheduler eventually became his daughter-in-law. After finishing the Naval Academy, Perry entered the United States Marine Corps.

  “He went through basic training, contracted mononucleosis somehow, was sicker than a dog, and finished his training in spite of it. He was still recovering from mono when he went to Camp Lejeune. Even being under the weather, Perry succeeded in passing the Marine life-saving training. (Because this experience is so hard, a small percentage of people ever pass the test.) He’s very self-disciplined,” Akin described with fatherly pride.

  As the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Congressman Akin was well-briefed on Iraq. “Then in January 2005 came the biggest news of all: Perry was being shipped to Fallujah. His mother and I were concerned because we kept reading in the newspaper about Marines who had died while there.”

  Perry’s maturity was evident as he reassured his parents of his faith in God and reminded them to acknowledge the Lord in all circumstances. “You know, my days on this earth are exactly as long as the Lord allows them to be. Nothing I can do can make them grow shorter or longer. It is all in the Lord’s hands.”

  “So we put our trust in God. Perry reminded his mother and me of the Lord’s direction as he went to serve,” Akin said of his resolution to trust God while his son was in Iraq.

  From the choices we make to the uncontrollable conditions we face, God reminds us to trust in him and not in our own understanding.

  Prayer:

  Thank you for reminding me to turn to you in trust and faith, especially when life brings surprising news.

  “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.” (Proverbs 3:5–6)

  February 22

  WORK LEFT TO DO

  Todd Akin, United States Congressman, Missouri, and father of Lt. Perry Akin, United States Marine Corps

  Lt. Perry Akin’s first great challenge came within days of arriving in Fallujah in January 2005. One responsibility was looking for IEDs. Perry just about found one in a puddle on a road in the rainy season, but he looked at it and concluded that it wasn’t an IED. A short time later, a Humvee drove over the road, and to the dismay of Perry, there was an IED in that puddle. It destroyed the Humvee, but fortunately, did not kill the driver.

  “It was a place where an enemy was sitting with a detonator; he could have easily pushed the button when he saw Perry standing and looking at that puddle,” Akin noted of the close call.

  The next great challenge came a few months later when Perry was promoted from second lieutenant to first lieutenant. About this time Congressman Akin was part of a Congressional delegation to Baghdad. Akin received permission to meet with Perry while in Fallujah, his gunny sergeant, the major and lieutenant colonel in charge.

  Less than twenty hours later, Akin was on a plane returning to the United States. About the same time, Perry and his men were constructing a roadside guard station. Suddenly mortar rounds started coming in; numerous troops were struck with shrapnel. Perry ran for cover with his gunny when a 120mm mortar round landed ten feet from them. That mortar was the size of a cantaloupe, Akin said, using his hands to illustrate the size by making a circle.

  “If it had gone off, I would have been in tiny little pieces, but the round was a dud,” Perry said. Perry’s own words “that his days on earth were exactly as long as the Lord allows them to be” brought comfort. They allowed Congressman Akin to make sense of the miracle.

  “It wasn’t God’s time to take Perry. My son had a sense that God had a purpose and a time for all things,” Akin said, reflecting on Ephesians 2:10.

  Survival is a mystery. Why do some die while others survive? It’s the question and mystery of the ages. Yet God reminds the living that he has work for them yet to do.

  Prayer:

  I praise you for those miracles, the blessings of the battlefield. May they remind me of my own purpose, the one you have given especially to me.

  “Many are the plans in a man’s heart, but it is the LORD’S purpose that prevails.” (Proverbs 19:21)

  February 23

  A CONGRESSMAN’S QUESTION

  Todd Akin, United States Congressman, Missouri and father of Lt. Perry Akin, United States Marine Corps

  When Congressman Akin visited his son, Lt. Perry Akin, in Fallujah in March 2005, he asked many questions about the leadership in Iraq. One answer shocked him.

  When I talked to the major in Fallujah I asked, “Now, if there were one or two things that I could do to help you, what would they be?”

  “I’d like more up-armored Humvees,” the major replied.

  “You got to be kidding me? We’ve had this controversy for two years. We are shipping up-armored Humvees into this place (Iraq) like it’s going to sink,” Akin said in disbelief.

  “What do you mean you need up-armored Humvees?” Akin asked, astonished.

  “Well, we don’t have enough, Sir. We don’t have as many as we need,” the major replied.

  As the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Akin was quite familiar with the up-armored Humvee controversy. Because of the enemy’s increasing use of IEDs and mortar attacks, Humvees needed additional armored protection.

  “So I go back here (Washington, D.C.) and have the staffers do some digging. We discover that the up-armored Humvees are going to areas around Iraq where there’s almost no violence, but the Marines in Fallujah were getting a limited amount of the up-armored Humvees. So we changed where the up-armored Humvees were going. Within a month or two, up-armored Humvees were flowing into Fallujah,�
�� Akin said.

  Akin didn’t know at the time that his “good work” would soon affect someone close to his son. Congressman Akin was visiting Perry at Camp Lejeune about a year after he’d been in Fallujah. Perry’s best friend from the Naval Academy walked out the front door of this little bungalow where second lieutenants live at Camp Lejeune and greeted Congressman Akin.

  “Congressman Akin thank you for saving my life. I was driving one of those up-armored Humvees and hit an IED. It totally destroyed the Humvee but I walked away from it,” the Marine explained.

  “That was one of those special moments for me when the Lord made this connection and ended up saving the life of this young man,” Akin said.

  Whether serving in Congress or the community center, you are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in advance to do good works (see Eph. 2:10). Even when you don’t see the fruits of your labor, you can trust in God’s might and firmness in his purpose for your life.

  Prayer:

  Bring to me confirmation of the work you have for me. Remind me of what is truly important today.

  “God is mighty, but does not despise men; he is mighty, and firm in his purpose.” (Job 36:5)

  February 24

  WHY WE FIGHT

  Todd Akin, United States Congressman, Missouri and father of Lt. Perry Akin, United States Marine Corps

  A question that reporters often ask Congressman Akin is this: How did having a son in Iraq impact your decisions as a lawmaker?

  “It would be nice if I had a flashy story to relate. I grew up in the Vietnam era. I saw the Mel Gibson movie We Were Soldiers that accurately summarized my sense that there wasn’t good civilian leadership when our troops were at war (in Vietnam),” Akin said.