In many ways, JAG gets it right. The syndicated TV series, on the air since 1995, follows Cmdr. Harmon Rabb Jr., an attorney in the Navy’s JAG Corps, and Lt. Col. Sarah MacKenzie, a Marine Corps judge advocate. With the characters’ passion for justice and plotlines borrowed from current events, the series mirrors the world of military law. It’s a world that, along with the rest of America’s military, is being molded by changing demands and the global war on terrorism. The experiences of the JAGs you knew years ago might not be the same as those of JAGs operating today.

“It’s much more challenging [now] than when I came in,” says Col. Gary Halbert, USAF, now in his 26th year of service. Halbert graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado, became an instructor pilot, and then went to the University of Texas Law School to fulfill his dream of becoming a military lawyer. Now he’s the director of the Air Force Executive Issues Team, a non-JAG billet. He’s witnessed remarkable growth in the types of law and the legal complexity JAGs are dealing with.

“When I first came in, a higher percentage of work was criminal justice work,” Halbert recalls. “In my last couple of years as staff judge advocate when I was running legal offices, a much higher percentage was other types of law, [such as] environmental, contract, [and] international.”

Counsel in the field

Halbert’s experience echoes that of JAGs across all services. More so than in the past, today’s JAGs are involved in operational and international law, advising commanders about critical issues such as the rules of engagement, the law of war, collateral damage, and the Geneva conventions. Also they’re writing constitutions in emerging democracies, helping base commanders deal with environmental clean-up requirements, negotiating contracts, and supporting equal opportunity and affirmative action policies.

Perhaps the most visible change, however, is in their increased advisory capacity. “Someone who’d been in World War II or Korea probably wouldn’t have seen an attorney. Now [attorneys are] at brigade and sometimes even at battalion level,” says Maj. Ian Iverson, USA, regimental judge advocate for the 75th Ranger Regiment. He’s been on active duty 12 years, having served first as an infantry officer before attending the William and Mary School of Law in Williamsburg, Va. He contends that even though the law hasn’t changed, technology and weaponry have, giving smaller units the means to inflict considerable damage. “Commanders of these smaller units now have an ability to influence the battlefield more than in the past. The need for timely advice has grown as their influence has grown.”

Counseling commanders on the rules of engagement, the Geneva conventions, and the law of war means more JAG attorneys are deploying with units. They are military officers first and foremost, having the same obligation as any other officer to serve as needed and wherever needed. “I’m not sure everyone grasps that concept,” Halbert says. “Yes, you’re an attorney and doing all that work, but you’re doing it in a context in which you’re deploying.”

“Our attorneys and our paralegals are out on convoys,” says Brig. Gen. Daniel Wright, assistant JAG for military law and operations for the Army. “They approach all the hazards any other soldier does.” As of Sept. 30, 2004, about a dozen Army attorneys had been wounded and three killed in action in the global war on terrorism, according to Wright. That’s out of approximately 3,000 lawyers and paralegals on active duty in the Army.

Wright has been in the Army 31 years, having obtained his law degree from the University of Miami in 1980 after serving first as an infantry officer. He says JAGs on the ground in Afghanistan and Iraq are trying to resurrect or build up the judicial systems in those countries. “JAGs in Iraq got involved in negotiations with other nations and international oil firms so that proceeds from Iraqi oil would go to support efforts to restore the country. That’s pretty exciting stuff for young attorneys to be involved in.”

Brig. Gen. Charles Dunlap Jr., staff judge advocate for Headquarters, Air Combat Command, also has witnessed firsthand the transformation of the JAG Corps. After completing his law degree at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, Dunlap entered active duty in the Air Force in 1976 and didn’t deploy until he’d been in 15 years. When he was attached to a Marine Corps unit and sent to Somalia, he says, “I didn’t know how to put on my load-bearing gear or my helmet cover. ... I didn’t know how to operate in the field.”

These days, Dunlap says, “You won’t find senior commanders who’ll go to the field now without a JAG.” Factors other than the complexities of law and war also contribute to the increased demand for JAG
inclusion in the field, Dunlap and other JAGs say.

Top of their game

Maj. Thomas Wagoner, USMC, concurs. He came back onto active duty in 1996 after completing time as a motor transport officer and then attended law school at Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. Now he teaches international and operational law and the third Geneva convention at the Army’s JAG Legal Center and School in Charlottesville, Va. He pinpoints the early 1990s as a critical time in the evolution of JAG duties. “Desert Storm was definitely a turning point where lawyers were more involved.” It was America’s first big post-Vietnam fight and featured instantaneous media attention, he says.

“Commanders are very sensitive to not only doing the right thing but also appearing to do the right thing,” Dunlap explains. “Commanders haven’t fallen in love with lawyers, believe me!”

Wagoner says commanders aren’t the only ones who benefit from an awareness of the legal framework they’re operating under. “More people need to be attuned to that, especially when a CNN reporter sticks a [microphone in front of] a lieutenant’s mouth.”

In their position of advising commanders and soldiers (and they’ll take pains to tell you they don’t make decisions for commanders; they advise), military lawyers must be on top of their game. “You have to know everything about operations,” says Dunlap. “Weapons, tactics, overall strategy—you have to get into the commander’s mind. Your real job is to fashion a legal way for the commander to accomplish his mission. ... When the commander turns to you with a question, you had better have an answer immediately and be able to communicate it in his language.”

Talking motives

It’s clearly not an easy job. What attracts legal professionals to such a demanding career, considering the earnings potential civilian attorneys can expect? For many, service to the nation, travel opportunities, diverse experience, and interest in helping others are powerful incentives.

“I know I’m going to be doing something different every day. It’s meaningful. ... My coworkers are tremendous people willing to sacrifice everything for their country,” Wright says.

Iverson agrees. “I get a lot of gratification from helping someone with something that’s important to them. Whether it’s personal or if commanders have something that’s really troublesome to them, it’s rewarding to know you can provide an answer.”

Some have more visceral motives. “The Iran hostage crisis pissed me off,” says Capt. Henry Molinengo, USN. He’s the legal adviser to the chief of naval personnel and came into the Navy as a lawyer in 1982 after obtaining his law degree at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. “I did think [joining the military as a judge advocate] would be a great way to start my career. It also was a way to travel and serve my country.”

Because of the range of law services JAGs must provide, military lawyers receive exceptional training. In addition to operational and international law, they practice administrative law (personnel, environmental, privacy act and Freedom of Information Act, intelligence oversight, and military enforcement of civil laws), labor law (litigation, labor-management relations), and contract law (contract reviews, disputes, procurement procedures). JAGs also study medical law (risk management programs, malpractice, credentialing of health care professionals), criminal law (prosecution or defense), civil litigation (representing U.S. tort claims), and what might constitute the bulk of their day-to-day work, legal assistance (wills, power of attorney, family law, tax and estate planning, immigration and naturalization, landlord-tenant issues, host-nation laws). They also, like Wagoner, teach at the various armed forces’ JAG schools. And they’ll tell you that they could deal with any of these areas of law in any given week.

“There’s no such thing as a typical day,” Iverson says. “Many of the things an attorney encounters can’t be planned for. It’s hard to predict, and that makes it a nice part of the job—it’s not routine.”

Wright says such diverse experience prepares these officers for their eventual shift into civilian life. “The JAG Corps helps prepare our guys for whatever they want to do, whether they’re in three years or 30.”

“In civilian business, someone supervising the number of people I do would probably be making millions,” says Dunlap, who oversees more than 700 people at more than 30 locations in the United States and Middle East. He has no regrets, though. “It may sound hokey, but there’s nothing like serving your country. Especially this country.”

All in all, then, despite its Hollywood treatment, the television show JAG manages to capture the enthusiasm and professionalism, dedication and devotion of real-world JAGs.

“They get right that [JAGs are] young people serving in their nation’s military trying to do the right thing, for the right reasons. That’s the story they get right,” says Halbert. “Sometimes I stand in awe of what we ask our young JAGs to do, and they step up and do it. That’s better than the [TV] show.”

There is one last thing Dunlap wants you to know about real JAG life versus the TV show, however. “Our life is not quite as glamorous. Of course, we’re much better looking.”