Everything You Always Wanted to Know About JAG: Part II

I hope the 4th of July holiday found everyone well. I had a fantastic long weekend back in Chicago, celebrating America's birthday in style with friends and family.

I've always been curious how terrible it must have smelled in that room. Philadelphia in July heat and humidity, wool suits and wigs, and a quite some time before Old Spice bodywash would come into existence. I don't see any windows either.

I was able to confirm that my Border Collie is still alive at 13 years - there is a longstanding family quarrel about the ultimate disposition of my Golden Lab back when we moved from San Francisco to Chicago in 1989. My parents claim that they gave Jinx (the above mentioned Lab) to a family friend who owned an Avocado farm and that he lived out his years in Avocado filled bliss. My brother and I strongly suspect something more nefarious occurred but we lack any way to prove it. Needless to say, I do not totally trust my parents when it comes to the status of my dog. Thankfully, Dooney is alive and well. Slightly more gray, slightly easier to tire out, and with an ever growing wart on his nose that is disgusting, but alive and well.

Dooney in festive Christmas attire. We are never going to let Mike and Jane send you to an "Avocado Farm."

I also went to the Cubs game for the first time in quite a while. The last time I can recall going to Wrigley was for a high school senior ditch day that ended with me passing out in my seat and paying for my friend to have his car washed. Thankfully this went far better.


I decided I am going to try and make semi-regular "JAG as a job" related postings on this blog. I remember having to scrounge through blogs and message boards for any scintilla of JAG related information back in law school. It was not until I spent my 2L summer at Wright-Patterson AFB with the AF JAG civilian internship program that I could understand what working at a Base Legal Office entailed. Hopefully posts like this will help shed a little light on lawyering in uniform.

Physical Training (PT):

PT is one of the great perks of working in the Air Force. While my usual day at Nellis is 0730-1630, I don't start work until 0900 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. We are all authorized to spend those 4.5 hours a week working out. I seriously doubt there are any other legal institutions out there that give away that much "on the clock" time for their employees to maintain physical fitness.

All three bases I have been at, Wright-Patt, Maxwell, and Nellis, have all had excellent workout facilities. I would have to rank Nellis at the top in light of their outstanding free-weight room, but all three were very good, especially when one factors in that they are completely free.

My office does PT as a group every Wednesday. Despite myself, I am thoroughly enjoying it. The wife of one of our JAGs is a personal trainer and she has lead our office in spinning, yoga, and weight circuit training. I never in my life anticipated doing yoga. Needless to say, it thoroughly kicked my ass and left my ego a little bruised.

Legal Assistance:

Every legal office offers free legal assistance to military members, retirees, and their dependents. My office has both scheduled appointments as well as walk-in hours. As I've mentioned previously, it can be a mixed bag. There is still the bar exam level breadth to the experience that I am coming to terms with. With the exception of criminal matters and some specific areas of civil law, nearly everything is fair game in these consultations. I often have little, if any, advance warning as to what specific issue I will have to advise my client. Thankfully we are always able to use the other JAGs in the office as a resource when we get the inevitable "out of left field" type of question. Some of my peers use a strategy in which they fake having to consult an reference manual that is not in their office when they go to another JAG's office for advice. I prefer to quite suddenly stand up and leave my office without announcement or explanation. I think it adds an air of mystery and a certain je ne sais quoi to my legal consultations.

The truly plus side to doing legal assistance is that you are literally helping people. It is not an advisory opinion that "helps" a commander or "helping" the Air Force/United States writ large by prosecuting those who violate the UCMJ. Rather, you are helping the person in your office with some issue that is complicating their lives. There can be a certain satisfaction that comes with such one-on-one contact that is often evasive in the abstract world of law practice.

The drawback to all of this is that it takes time. Hours spent with legal assistance clients are hours I am not working on my upcoming courts or civil law assignments. There are only so many hours in the week and at the end of the day, I am either meeting or busting my assignment deadlines. Losing those hours, no matter how valuable legal assistance might be, is becoming a reoccurring frustration.


The JAG Accessions Timeline:

This is is a bit of a non-sequitur but I see a lot of questions in regard to how the timeline works from law school to active duty JAG. While this is obviously unique to my circumstances, this hopefully can provide some general context:

Summer between 2L/3L
July 07: Interviewed for a Direct Appointment slot, application would be going before the August accessions board.

3L
23 August 07: Received the phone call that I had been approved for a Direct Appointment into Air Force JAG

October 07: Attended and passed my military physical (MEPS)

May 08: Graduated law school

July 08: Sat for the Illinois Bar

01 Oct 08: Received my (passing) bar results. Notified JAX of my bar passage the same day.

07 Oct 08: Received my station assignment options from JAX. I was offered Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota and Nellis AFB, Nevada. Grand Forks was not on my "Dream Sheet," Nellis was my number four choice of twenty-five bases.

06 Nov 08: Sworn into the Illinois Bar, sent JAX my credentials that I was licensed within a week or so.

Nov 08: Received my commissioning paperwork, official orders, etc. A lot of paperwork was filled out and sent back to JAX. I learned here that I would attend the January class of Commissioned Officer Training (COT 09-02) and JAG School immediately thereafter in February (JASOC B-09).

January 09: Officer Training School, Maxwell AFB, AL

February 09: Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course, Maxwell AFB, AL

23 Apr 09: Reported to Nellis AFB