Interview with CH (MAJ) Roy Myers

Abstract

This interview with Chaplain (Major) Roy M. Myers, a chaplain clinician, covers his deployment as part of Task Force 134, specifically with the 21st Combat Support Hospital, to Iraq from April 2006 to April 2007. He discusses the religious support he provided to soldiers assigned to the detention facilities of Camp Bucca, Camp Cropper and Abu Ghraib; what it was like to be part of an interdisciplinary team; some morale problems he helped deal with; the at times tense command climate of Task Force 134; the importance of maintaining a proper level of cultural sensitivity and respect when dealing with indigenous populations, even detainees; and the difficulties associated with getting other US soldiers and officers to think of "these detainees as guests in our hospital." Myers also talks about what makes a good chaplain; the challenges, as a Christian, of seeing to Muslim detainees' pastoral care; how the Army employs chaplains in the current operating environment and how they can best assist commanders; how family care plans can be improved and why he thinks that the Army's greatest challenge is its impending personnel "train wreck." "We're in a situation now," he said, "where you could almost cut the desperation with a knife. What I'm hearing from my technical chain is that all the things we look at to tell us how healthy the Army is, they're saying the Army is not healthy. There are disciplinary problems, family problems, AWOLs, desertions, drug problems - the list goes on. The Army has probably reached its breaking point, in my opinion. If it hasn't reached its breaking point yet, it certainly will." Myers also speaks to what he sees as a "tremendous amount of ambivalence" in today's Army and how he and his fellow officers can develop and retain a strong sense of identity in the midst of it.