Michael Bumgarner

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Colonel Michael Bumgarner (born 1959) is the commander of the Joint Detention Group at Camp Delta.^[1]

Detainees described him as the chief American negotiator during the hunger strike that ended July 28, 2005.^[2] They described Colonel Bumgarner making promises that the Americans failed to fulfill.

In reaction to the three June 10, 2006 suicides Bumgarner said:^[3] "The trust level is gone. They have shown time and time again that we can't trust them any farther than we can throw them. There is not a trustworthy son of a ... in the entire bunch."

Bumgarner blamed himself for the incident on May 18, 2006.^[4] The Charlotte Observer quoted Bumgarner: "I trusted them too much. The fans -- I should have never let fans in that room. Why I ever allowed that to happen, I don't know ... I was being too nice."

An epilogue to the June 18, 2006 Charlotte article says that when the author made a final courtesy call to Bumgarner, on June 13, 2006, three days after the bases first acknowledged suicides, Bumgarner's deputy answered his phone because she had been appointed acting commander of the guard force, 17 days before the end of his appointment.

COL Bumgarner has recently been the director of the Maneuver Support Center, Capabilities Development and Integration Directorate, Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. He was responsible for developing new concepts for the Army to help protect the force. In that role, he was a popular enthusiastic leader, who toiled endlessly to bring better capabilities and heart to the troops.