Multi-National Division - Baghdad chaplain gives words of encouragement to Soldiers: 'God Bless You'

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Benjamin Crane | Capt. Timothy Meier, a native of Northville, Mich., who serves as a chaplain with 142nd Chaplains Detachment, California Army National Guard, currently attached to the chaplain's office, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, stands in front a book shelf of materials Soldiers can come by and pick up from his office. Supplies include Bibles, rosary beads, devotionals and sermons recorded to CD. Meier is a Catholic priest who was commissioned an officer at the age of 50.  

BAGHDAD, IRAQ

10.30.2008

Story by Spc. Benjamin Crane 

Multi-National Division Baghdad

By Spc. Benjamin Crane
Multi-National Division - Baghdad

CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – Military chaplains are a vital part of a Soldier's everyday life. They look after service members' spiritual wellbeing as well as their morale. The chaplain is the one person Soldiers can open up to without worry of consequence.

On any given day, Soldiers working on Camp Liberty are likely to walk past a grey-mustached Army captain who, with a salute, will render a friendly "God Bless You" to them as he walks by.

Capt. Timothy Meier is a chaplain, a scholar and a wise man.

For Meier, a Catholic priest who serves with 142nd Chaplains Detachment, California Army National Guard, currently attached to the chaplain's office, 4th Infantry Division, Multi-National Division – Baghdad, he said he felt it was his calling to serve this role to the Soldier.

"In the summer of 2005, I made a 30-day silent retreat called the Spiritual Exercises of Saint Ignatius Loyola," said Meier, a Northville, Mich. native. "In the course of the retreat, it became clear to me that I was being asked to join the Army, which was not at all what I had ever seen myself doing. And so, it was a big surprise and something of a concern for me since I was never a big fan of war. But I could see that the need for Catholic chaplaincy was very great, and if I could be of service, then that's what I feel I needed to do."

For Meier, joining the Army at the age of 50 was a far cry from what he had been spending the majority of his years doing. He had been through what he called the "37th grade" in school. He earned a bachelor's degree in biology and music from Kalamazoo College, followed by a master's degree in philosophy from Loyola University in Chicago. At Georgetown he received a Bachelor of Science in biology (immunology) as well as master's degrees in Divinity and Theology from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology. He also holds a doctorate in biological sciences (molecular neurobiology) from Stanford with post-doctorate work in molecular virology at Stanford and Yale.
Even with a life dedicated to higher education and being the devout believer he is, he said he couldn't change what he felt God wanted him to do.

Once Meier signed the papers to join the military, the consummate researcher in him took over and he researched Army Knowledge Online and did the online courses to become familiar with the skill sets that anyone who has attended basic training would learn.

He went to Chaplain Basic Officer Leader Course at Fort Jackson, S.C., where he found out that the Army was one institution he had very little knowledge about. He also discovered that he would be facing a bigger challenge than even a lack of knowledge: Age.

"I'm old," Meier stated, "and my body is falling apart."

He had both shoulders operated on shortly after he joined the Army and, 90 days after his surgery, he had to take an Army Physical Fitness Test. He passed despite his recovering shoulders, bad knees, bad feet and arthritis.

"Another challenge was just learning another language," he said. "The Army has a language unto itself as well as the culture, which was different from anything I had been associated with up to that point."

After the Power Point presentations, "stress tests," and road marches and hours of classes of his initial training, Meier is now in Iraq, still learning the ropes but with help from his assistant and from those he works alongside.

"I find myself doing a lot of training," said Sgt. 1st Class Matthew McGee, chaplain's assistant to Meier, who also serves with 142nd Chaplains Det. McGee said he and Meier are always going over what to do in certain situations and discussing details on how to go through a firing maneuver together since Meier doesn't carry a weapon. McGee is a perfect fit to assist Meier, having served 15 years in the Army on active duty and almost another 15 years as a part of the reserve component.

"What makes [Meier] a good chaplain is that he relates well with Soldiers," said McGee. "He is pretty versatile at talking to people at their level, and as a leader. I appreciate that he asks my opinions on issues and he is humble enough to ask the opinion of other officers."

Most Soldiers don't know Meier by name but recognize him by his "God Bless You" greeting as they salute in passing. Meier sees his trademark greeting as more than simply an encouraging word.

"I look on that as a way of doing something that I can do for somebody else, which is praying," he said. "I believe even if that other person doesn't have faith, my God can still bless the person, and I like to make that known.

"A member from my religious community, whom I really respect a lot, greeted people that way and I thought, 'Wow, that is a really neat way to interact with people.' We are over here without family and friends, and we are in more danger than we might be elsewhere if we were in the States, so I figure the more prayer, the better."

When Meier isn't guiding the souls of Soldiers or serving his duties in the Society of Jesus, he works in California as a biology professor at Stanford University.

"I am the undergraduate research coordinator and the director of the honors program in the Department of Biology at Stanford University, and I love my job," said Meier. "It's a wonderful position. I get to interact with all of the brightest of the bright Stanford undergraduates and work with tenured professors, who are the best in the world at what they do."

Meier has tried to be a blessing to the Soldiers he sees on an everyday basis and says that it is he who gets the most blessing out of supporting the troops, who he considers the real heroes.

"I find myself ever more humbled because I find myself with an awful lot of women and men who are very, very courageous and very honorable, whose sacrifices, and whose family sacrifices, just continually blow me away."

At one time or another, every deployed service member is in need of a kind word of encouragement. Chaplain Meier's mission, his personal calling here in Baghdad, is to give that encouragement to every Soldier he passes in the form of a friendly "God Bless You," which in reality is also Meier's personal prayer.

• Date Taken: 10.30.2008
• Date Posted: 10.30.2008 14:14
• Story ID: 25746
• Location: BAGHDAD, IQ