U.S. Marines exchange devotional material with Iraqi soldiers

U.S. Marines serve side-by-side with Iraqi Army soldiers and in the process they share insights from their faith perspectives, according to a Marine Corps Chaplain

“They often provided a copy of Strength for Service to their Iraqi counter-parts and they in turn gave the Marines a Koran,” said U.S. Navy Chaplain Dave Glassmire. “An environment of mutual respect and tolerance ensued. These are the things one does not see reported in the news.”

Lieutenant Commander Glassmire said such sharing “allowed the Marines and these Muslim men to recognize that we are all God’s children. Through a simple faith-based devotional, people came to share from their hearts about what faith in God meant for them.”

Prior to his own deployment to Iraq, Chaplain Glassmire gave copies of Strength for Service to God and Country to recruits training at Camp Pendleton Marine Corps Base.

 “At the God Block we outfitted Religious Ministry Teams for deployment into Iraq with the spiritual resources necessary to sustain six-month deployments overseas,” says Glassmire. Among those materials were copies of Strength for Service to God and Country, a World War II book of daily devotions revised and circulated by the General Commission on United Methodist Men.

In 2003, Chaplain Glassmire handed the pocket-sized books to troops in Iraq while serving as the Marine Air Group 39 Forward Command Chaplain where he was responsible for 5,000 Marines and Sailors.

“When we chaplains deployed to forward operating bases inside Iraq, we took field kits loaded with devotional materials and necessary items to conduct divine worship services for the troops,” says Glassmire. In Iraq, we ministered to Christians, Muslims and Jews, but the most highly sought after books remained the Bible and Strength for Service. “In country, we could not keep these in stock.”

Glassmire served in the Navy for 27 years, the last 10 years as a chaplain and 17 previous years as an enlisted man and an intelligence officer. Glassmire says he learned about the actions of Marines and Iraqis from his Iraqi translator and Police body guard.

Father Glassmire now serves as pastor of St. Anthony of Paua Church in Lackawanna, New York.