I’m an ADC

I have been assured one of the greatest assignments in the AF is as an Area Defense Counsel (ADC).  The ADC is the base’s defense attorney.  We are here to help Airmen of any rank when they get into trouble with their command.  Sometimes they’re guilty as the day is long, and sometimes they are being railroaded… Either way, it is our job to help find a way to represent their best interests.

For example, when a young Airmen comes to me and tells me he doesn’t want to fight the charges and just wants to accept his punishment, it becomes my job to help him and help the commander understand who this person really is and how a punishment will effect them.  It’s also a matter of demonstrating this young Airman just made a mistake, or had a moment of terrible judgment.  If I’m doing my job, I help the commander or jury see the person they are judging and that almost always provides some additional level of justice.

I have been on the job for almost a month, and I’m loving it.  I have my own office, which provides a new-found level of autonomy and responsibility.  Of course a lawyer is always responsible to ensure they are competently representing their client, but in the ADC position, it is also your responsibility to ensure you are running an effective office and maintaining the respect the office deserves by those on base.  The other blessing and curse of the ADC office is that we are completely independent from any commander at the base level.  We respond to a JAG chain-of-command back in Washington DC.  That means we aren’t pressured to convince our clients into a position because we fear reprisal from base level commanders.  Our command independence also means we can easily be lost in the shuffle unless we are vocal and respected.

Being a JAG has been an outstanding experience.  I’ve been in for about 2.5 years now, and it’s been awesome.  I will try to be better about adding more posts in the future discussing what my career choice is all about.

Catching up

It has been way too long since I’ve posted.  I keep waiting to upload pictures, and then get busy etc… sorry for the excuses.  I promise that in the next few weeks I will do an entire posting of pictures.

After the last time that I posted, we had a 3 day weekend.  We went to Salzberg Austria with our friends Jason and Jodi.  It is  a very cool drive because you go up and down the mountains and see all of the Austrian houses hanging onto the side of the hills.  It’s usually a 4 hour drive, but with everyone on holiday and many of the tunnels thru the mountains were under construction, so it took about 6 hours to get there and 7.5 to get back.  There were times when traffic would literally stop and people would get out and walk around or let their dog pee, etc…

We got to Salzberg on Friday early afternoon, and walked the whole town.  It was really nice to get out of Italy and experience some of the other people of Europe.  The Austrians (really just Germans in disguise) are so different from the Italians-night and day.  We took Sophie b/c we heard they were really dog friendly.  And they were.  Even more than here.  People had dogs in restaurants.  There is a fortified castle/village on the top of a hill (I am blanking on the name) that most people get to by taking a funicular, but we hiked up the side.  It was tons of fun.  We finished the evening by eating sushi b/c we haven’t had it since getting here.  Also, the people at the restaurants were super dressy, so we wouldn’t have fit.

We did some more touring the next day, and then took the long drive home.  They have some pretty famous Sound of Music tours, but we didn’t do it since it was 4 hours.  I think Sarah is going to do it with her parents when they come in a week.

Speaking of Sophie, she has been really great here.  We love taking her with us where ever we go.  On Sunday we went for a 2 hour hike up the mountain in our back yard, and she lead the whole way.  She will also be coming with us in Oct when we come to Chicago.

Labor Day weekend Sarah had us take it easy since her parents are on the way.  We did take a trip to a Prosecco field about an hour away.  Prosecco is the Italian champaign.  We had some really fabulous Prosecco (which actually means it’s horrible b/c it’s sooo dry).  It was really cool because the people from my office that we went with have spent lots of money at this place and so we got great treatment.  The owner has a private picnic table in a gazebo at the top of a hill surrounded by his grapes.  So we took a picnic and sampled all of the Proseccos.  It was a very uniquely Italian thing.

I hope this give an idea of what we’ve been up to.  I have actually been busy at work doing stuff that is keeping my attention.  I love that I do 18 different types of law every day.  It’s the perfect job for a lawyer with ADD.

Again, I will try to post pictures ASAP.

Sending the Guilty to Jail

Actually, in the military, it’s called confinement.

This past week I had two trials.  Both were drug use cases by young airmen; one was cocaine, the other marijuana.  These substances are generally frowned upon by the Air Force.

I gave the closing argument in both cases.  Used a theme centering around choices and consequences.  Well, things went very well, and both received the sentence I asked for.  Three months confinement for the cocaine case and one month for the marijuana case.  There were also other military specific punishments, but I won’t bore you with that.

The trials kinda felt like the 100 mock trials I had done before, but when I turned around during the close to point at what is usually a fake defendant, there was a real person.  I have no sympathy for people who use drugs in the military, it jeopardizes the mission, etc; however, when you look at a 20 year old airmen who is about to face a pretty miserable future, you can’t help but have some sympathy for the situation.

And if that wasn’t ‘real’ enough, at the end, after I get the sentence that I want and people are busy complimenting the case I put on, the defendant is being lead out of the courtroom in handcuffs on his way to confinement in Germany.

I love getting in the courtroom, and it feels great when I put on a good case and get the result I wanted.  But, when it’s all done, I realize it’s not a game.

On-call JAG

I haven’t done much posting about my job, so here it goes.

This week I am the on-call JAG. That means from Friday to Friday I’m called about anything that happens on base that is of any concern – day or night. That’s right it’s 0530 here right now and I’m sitting on the computer waiting for the law enforcement (LE) desk to call me back. A member was ‘actin’ a fool’ and they needed to know if they had authority to search his blood for alcohol (a blood draw). For you non-lawyer types this might bore you but here are the facts/questions:

1) Passenger in car at gate… harrassing the guards.
2) Off the walls when he gets back to the dorms.
3) Does damage to his door (damage to gov’t property) and damage to his room.
4) He is apprehended (military term for arrested).
5) He is read his rights – and lawyers up.

Q1) Can you seek consent to search even though he’s lawyered up?
Q2) If he doesn’t consent, is there probable cause sufficient for a search warrant from a magistrate?

I’ll give you a chance to mull that over as I continue to type.

I’m fairly confident that I got the answers right, and even if I didn’t it’s not the crime of the century we’re talking about. However, I’ve been pretty nervous to get this call since I got the phone on Friday (there is an actual phone). My only legal experience with search and seizure is in a theoretical setting in the classroom with case law and time for research, and there is tons of case law to be applied to each different aspect of a PC search. I think more than any other question or situation that would arise, a question about search and seizure and right to counsel are the most nerve racking. It’s because I’m supposed to know the answer. If there’s something BIG that happens, the only thing I really need to do is call up my chain of command and act as a contact. And the more minor things are just a ‘notification/police covering their butts by talking to the legal types’. But situations like this are make or break. It’s my call and I have only a couple minutes to check my resources. If I get it wrong the case is blown (oh, and I look like an idiot).

So back to the questions above. I told him that even though he has lawyered up, they may still seek consent to search. He said he’d call back either way to let me know what he said…. I just heard from the LE desk. The guy consented. But if he hadn’t I’m pretty confident there was PC to get search authority.

The real uniqueness about my job is the very broad amount of legal subjects we cover. In the past two weeks I have done the following: answered questions about the 4th and 5th Amendments; prepared to discharge an individual under less than honorable conditions for repeated misconduct; prepare to prosecute an individual for cocaine use; reviewed new guidlines regarding aspects of flight supervision for legal sufficiency; served as a legal advisor for the Disater Control Group (the group that responds to major disasters) while there was a simulated plane crash; and seen about 15 legal assistance clients with questions regarding divorce in multiple states and Canada, preparation of wills and trusts, debt forgiveness, spousal support, and child custody. That is-no kidding-only 2 weeks of work. It’s perfect for a person with ADD.

I very much enjoy my job. It keeps my attention and interest. Hours are reasonable – about 10 hours a day. The money is better than most government positions. And, OH YA, I live in ITALY.

I should’ve kept my mouth shut

So remember a few weeks ago, I complained about the ungodly heat in my room. Well, we got AC and everything was great. But now, Montgomery, AL has gotten cold. I mean like 50 degrees high, 30 low.

The heat is turned off, and the AC is still blowing. My room is 52 degrees right now, and that’s a high for the day.

My status as hero is no longer.

Passover in Montgomery

Who would’ve thought… there are Jews in the Air Force.

This past Monday one of my classmates had myself and another student over to his house for Passover Seder. His wife cooked an outstanding meal, traditional to the T.

My experience that night was great. The meal itself really demonstrated the camaraderie we share with one another. The couple went out of their way to prepare a formal Seder so that we would all have a place to celebrate the holiday.

This leads to another point about the Air Force… The people here are outstanding. Really, just good people, no hang-ups, no agendas, just plain old good people. JAG school is prime for competition. The 67 other people in our class are going to always be people we may be challenging for promotion or preferred assignments. Yet, we couldn’t be nicer to each other. Whenever this many people are around each other day and night, obviously, you talk about each other… but no matter how much somebody might be on another person’s nerves, you can see the person physically pained to say anything remotely negative about the other.

Now, time to vent about Passover. I’m hungry, and backed up… need I say more. I was forced to buy a mega pack of matzos because the matzos selection in Montgomery, AL isn’t extensive. For some reason, I feel like I have to eat it all by the end of Passover. I’m basically going through a box a day. What’s wrong with me???

EDIT: I have food! Jaynie sent me a delicious care package with pop-overs and cookies. Thanks J!

Soooo HOT

Apparently Montgomery, AL is HOT.

It’s been over 80 for the past few weeks. Don’t get me wrong I love it, BUT, the temp in our rooms has been over 85 for weeks. How is a person supposed to sleep or function with heat such as this?

The complaints have been numerous from just about every member of the class. We flood the front desk (so much that they actually took the phone off the hook). And then, we finally we got word that one person holds the switch, the base commander.

This was both a good and bad. On one hand, we knew that there was indeed someone with the power to ease our pain, but on the other hand, its a fairly high level individual who lives in a beautiful house on the other side of base with the AC pumping at his whim. Why the heck would he care?

Oh, one more roadblock… Maxwell AFB is trying to reduce spending. In fact the base has set a goal to save $1M over the next year. A goal we can all applaud, save money, reduce energy expenditure, etc…

Thing weren’t looking good especially given that the year is almost 25% over and the base has saved a mere $45K, only about 5% of the total goal.

I had kept my mouth shut long enough. I spent hours in the middle of the night trying to come up with a plan. In fact, I drew up a schematic for an Andy built air conditioner.

This morning, after only a couple hours of sleep, despair became me. But then, it occurred to me, an opportunity I couldn’t pass up.

Today at noon we had our weekly lunch with the JAG school commandant, a Colonel (a pretty big deal dude). My opportunity presented… after blabbering about something for 40 minutes, he said, “does anyone have any questions or comments?”

I didn’t let hardly a second pass as my hand shot in the air. I had thought about this moment all morning. I knew it was a difficult complaint to air, but I had thought about what I would say, “Sir, with all due respect to our fellow service members who deal with extreme heat on a daily basis in the dessert, our rooms are hot.”

He paused, and so did I. “And the base commander holds the switch,” another classmate uttered.

“So I hear” he retorted. And then asked “how many others have hot rooms?”

The groan was loud. Everyone was waiting for their chance to voice their discomfort and this was it.

Obviously, this was outside the Col.’s typical job responsibilities, but he said he was friends with the commander, and then went into a schpiel about how its good to make friends with people who can flip switches (something my father taught me long ago).

A call would be made, he assured.

By the time I approached the dorms, I could hear hoots and hollers from the windows. With the excitement mounting I double-timed it to my room. “Could it be true? Did I do it? Am I a hero?”

A group of classmates had congregated outside my door, and lifted me toward the sky as if I kicked a winning field goal! (this didn’t happen)

Feeling the excitement, I decided it was time to enter my freezer like quarters. I insert the key, with the anticipation mounting. The door opens, and I leap in like a 7-year-old at Christmas/Chanukah.

I couldn’t feel the cool air. I thought, perhaps I need to wait a moment for my body to adjust. I waited, and waited. How could this be? My air was not on. The only one!

Two hours later, and with just a little whining, maintenance flipped yet another switch, and here I sit, in a room conditioned with air as cool as a popsicle on a really cool day.

Note: it stinks. And even though that smell should probably indicate poison or something, I don’t care. I would rather die tonight as I sleep soundly in a room full of cold poison, than spend another night tossing in a bed soaked by a mixture of the humid air and my gross man-sweat.

I left Montgomery!

Well, not for good. But, for the first time in 9 weeks, I left the city of Montgomery, AL by myself. Rob recently got a job offer in Nashville, and was looking at homes with Amanda. So I took the 3.5 hour drive to the city of Honky Tonk. It was outstanding. I can’t stand country music, but there is something about live music and beer that makes anything fun. The musicians in Nashville are incredible. We spent three hours last night in a bar with a country band straight out of 1955 complete with an 80 y-o fiddler. They played ‘real country’, which I think I like more than not-real country. They played everything from Elvis to Johnny Cash to Hank Williams… and they didn’t take a break! It was a lot of fun.

My life isn’t all fun and games. I do have class all week long. As I have mentioned before, they classes are all very informative, blah blah blah. They’re also long and sometimes boring. I haven’t sat through 8 hours of class a day since high school. Man, high school was boring.

Tomorrow is our first ‘court’. We are doing a mock-sentencing. I’m pretty excited to get in the courtroom. Basically, we have a young Airman who pled guilty to possession, use and distribution of LSD.

Well, that’s it from here. I hope to hear from all.

And one more thing: Happy Birthday Mom!

My Best Day in the Air Force

Yesterday was probably my best day in the Air Force to date, but before we get to that, I’ll give you a quick update on what I’m currently doing…

I have been in JASOC (Judge Advocate Staff Officer Course) for two weeks now. It is a nine week intensive training for all aspects of our military legal career. We spend most of our time covering the UCMJ (Uniform Code of Military Justice) and the ways of enforcing that code. We also spend a lot of time covering the civil law side of our military practice. Our final main area of study is legal assistance. JAG offices support many of the personal legal issues for Airman and their dependants. We will learn how to write wills for military members, and how to answer other typical questions.

Back to my best day… Wednesday, we left for our first field trip. We took a coach bus to Hurlburt Field and Eglin AFB in FL. The purpose of the trip is to show us many of the operational departments on an active base. Hurlburt Field is the home of the Air Force’s Special Forces Operations. On Thursday, we got to tour their base and see some of their cool toys.

Friday morning we left early to visit Eglin AFB. However, before going to Eglin we went to the military training facility for bomb ordinance training. The Navy runs this base and trains members from all branches on how to deal with disarming bombs. We were running pretty late, but got to hear some pretty cool explosions.

From there we went back to Eglin where we got to meet the Security Force’s (AF version of MPs) military working dogs. They put on some pretty cool demonstrations and we got to meet the working dogs. Below are a couple of the picture from the demos.

Next, we headed to the other side of the base where we had lunch on the beach. Yup, that’s right, the Navy isn’t the only branch with beach side property. (It was about 75 degrees).

We then spent the afternoon meeting Security Forces. They showed us their detention facility where they are keeping a recently convicted officer of a male-on-male rape. He got 50 years. On a side note, it was a Captain a little over 1 year out of JASOC that tried the guy. This is the sort of stuff I might get a chance to do within just a few weeks.

We also got to see their 911 desk and then got to play with some of their guns. I am holding a gun with a grenade launcher and a machine gun. Cool stuff!

Graduation

It’s been a while since I wrote… I intend to keep posting regularly, so check back often.

A week and a half ago I graduated from COT. All of the minutia and piddle stupid stuff continued until the very end. Man, am I glad its over. The best part of that week was have family and friends visit. Thursday afternoon at about 1600, my mom and David showed up. It was almost surreal. I hadn’t seen a familiar face in so many weeks, it was just so strange. And then about 30 min later my dad showed up. It was so relieving to finally see some of the people I had been missing so much.

I think it was pretty shocking for my parents to see me in uniform for the first time.
This is one of my everyday uniforms. I have on the lightweight coat that we can wear indoors and out. Under is a dress shirt with a tie. Don’t I look like a Delta pilot?

Later that night was the ‘dinning out’. It is basically a formal dinner with a lot of roasting and toasting. We all wear tuxedos or what’s called mess dress.

Friday was the actual graduation. I got to take my parents to the chow hall for lunch. I was actually pretty happy that the food was particularly bad. I got a little sympathy, and that made me happy!

We wore ‘service dress’ for the graduation which means adding a suit coat. I think this is the sharpest of our uniforms.

The graduation ceremony involved a lot of marching and then taking the oath of office. The weather was very cold and the wind was whipping. Who would of guessed it would be this cold in Alabama? The coolest was at the very end when we got a fly over. That’s one of the fringe benefits of being in the Air Force.

The rest of the weekend was excellent.

JAG school started Tuesday and its actually been pretty decent. I will post more about this new experience soon.