Prior to World War I, there were no enlisted men in the Judge Advocate General’s Department (JAGD), as the Corps was then known. Given the small size of the JAGD—there were a total of seventeen uniformed lawyers in the Army in 1916—the War Department no doubt felt that any necessary clerical work could be done by civilian employees and that enlisted soldiers should be utilized elsewhere.

As the U.S. Army reorients towards strategic competition with the People’s Republic of China (China) and the Russian Federation (Russia), there is an increasingly urgent and pressing need for the development of leaders with “regional focus and cultural fluency” in the Indo-Pacific theater both in the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps and the Army, writ large.

In a historic move, President Trump vetoed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) in 2020, claiming that it failed to include certain critical national security measures and contradicted efforts to put America first in national security and foreign policy actions. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle spoke out against the President’s veto and his accompanying demands for changes to the legislation.

Since 1775, the most frequently asked question within the Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps has nothing to do with the law—it is, in fact: “Where are you going next?” This topic increasingly occupies the thoughts of most of the JAG Corps as the summer personal-change-of-station season approaches, yet for many of us, the assignment process may be shrouded in mystery.

Although the U.S. Army Audit Agency (AAA) conducts approximately one hundred audits each fiscal year, many organizations below Headquarters, Department of the Army or the headquarters of an Army command (ACOM)/Army service component command (ASCC)/direct reporting unit (DRU) do not have regular contact with AAA auditors.

In the wake of Specialist (SPC) Vanessa Guillén’s disappearance and murder, Fort Hood experienced unprecedented media scrutiny. In the aftermath, the Fort Hood Independent Review Commission (FHIRC) conducted an investigation into Fort Hood’s culture, command climate, Sexual Harassment/Assault Response and Prevention (SHARP) program, and Criminal Investigative Division (CID) detachment.

The Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps and Judge Advocate Legal Services, like many professional legal organizations, is self-regulating. Through the Rules of Professional Conduct for Lawyers contained in Army Regulation (AR) 27-26 and the procedures outlined in AR 27-1, the JAG Corps polices itself.