Welcome to the Fabulous USAF Warfare Center

Home Sweet Home?

I am finally settled in. I have to give Pockets (nickname, obviously), one of my close friends from law school and an attorney practicing here in LV, special thanks for all of her help with my transition. Way to go on the Nevada Bar!

I am living in Summerlin, a suburban enclave that is north of the Strip and south of Nellis. It is equidistant between the two which makes getting around quite easy. I am renting a huge 3 bedroom condo with a friend from OTS/JASOC, that also works in my legal office. We will call my roommate Bohdi to maintain his privacy and to provide a foil to my Special Agent Johnny Utah moniker.

This is a fair and accurate depiction of the friendship of me and Bohdi as well as how totally extreme we both are. I would have to say that our Summerlin condo is a 9.5 on the extreme scale, with 1 being not so extreme and 10 being extremely extreme.


This is such a extreme movie.

The actual condo is great as well as the little gated community in which it resides. We have a fantastic pool, as well as a park and fitness center. I'll get around to taking pictures one of these days.

Work is also going well. I am finally set up in my office. All of my household goods arrived on Friday so I am finally able to hang my J.D., law license, and all the other pretentious trappings that come with being an attorney and an officer. In addition to all my other duties (more on that later), all the JAGs in the office do Legal Assistance throughout the week. Any service member or dependant is able to get free legal advice on just about anything. It is kind of like the bar exam in terms of having anything under the sun thrown at you, except this actually impacts people's lives. It is, in a word, terrifying. All the framed and important looking things on my wall hopefully will give me some credibility with these clients. At least I hope the framed stuff will put an end to them asking if I am a little too young to be a lawyer.

For those who might not have talked to me in a while, I am stationed at Nellis Air Force Base, just north of downtown Las Vegas. It is a massive base. I am assigned to the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center (USAFWC), which is an amazing command. The Warfare Center is home to, among other units, the "Top Gun" School of the Air Force, known as the USAF Weapons School, with the responsibility of training all of our our elite combat pilots. "Top Gun," of course, does not feature the USAF but rather is a Navy movie, set at Naval Air Station Miamar. You know they are Naval Aviators due to the overwhelming level of homo-eroticism seen throughout the movie.

You can cut the sexual tension with a knife. Just kiss already, Ice...man.

It seems Navy guys like nothing more than stripping down to their jeans, oiling up, and playing volleyball with some other dudes who have also stripped down to their jeans and oiled up.

Back to what I do for a living. The Warfare Center is an amazing first assignment. Most junior JAGs are assigned to a base that has a single Wing, analogous to an Army Brigade, headed up by a Colonel or Brigadier General. The Warfare Center is composed of 5 Wings, three of which are located at Nellis, plus direct reporting units at nearby Creech AFB, and we are headed up by a Major General. Therefore, we are far more like a Numbered Air Force in size and composition than a Wing. This means we are responsible for providing legal services on a far larger scale, which will result in amazing exposure and experience for me. At the moment, however, it feels like I am drinking from a firehose.


I am serving as Chief of Administrative Law and Chief of Claims. I was also just sworn in as a Special Assistant United States Attorney for the District of Nevada, for when we prosecute civilians who have committed crimes on base -- we cannot prosecute civilians in a court-martial as they are civilians and not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. In that military installations are Federal property, crimes committed here fall under Federal jurisdiction and must be prosecuted in the Federal District Court where the installation is located.


In that the USAFWC trains up all of the elite combat pilots, I get to see the planes that compose the Air Force arsenal on a daily basis. There really is nothing like walking to your car while a formation of F-22 Raptors fly over.


So far, I have been able to observe F-16 Vipers, F-15 Eagles, F-22 Raptors, and F-18 Hornets. We are also getting the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) - Lightning II, which will be nothing short of amazing. It is probably a bit adolescent to get this excited over fighter planes but I am not going to worry about it.

The F-16 Viper. The Viper is a multi-role strike fighter with amazing dog fighting capabilities. It has a thrust-to-weight ratio of greater than one, which means it can climb and accelerate vertically. The F-16 will ultimately be replaced by the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

The Thunderbirds, the Air Force's Air Demonstration Squadron, also fly the F-16. They are stationed here at Nellis and are truly a sight to be seen.

The F-15E Strike Eagle. This is the cousin of the F-15 Eagle, the fourth-generation fighter that I was able to interact with down at Eglin. The F-15 is being replaced by the F-22 Raptor.

The F-22 Raptor. This is our fifth-generation air-superiority stealth fighter and is unmatched by any other fighter in the world, either presently in service or projected in the future.


The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, known as the Lightning II. This is a multi-role stealth strike fighter much like the F-16, except far more advanced. F-35 is the world's premier strike fighter with close and long range air-to-air capability second only to that of the F-22.

All in all, things are going wonderfully in Las Vegas. While the first two weeks were hectic, I'm finally hitting my stride. I'm looking forward to the next couple months as I get more and more comfortable with my job and living in Las Vegas.