The Lore of the Corps 2010-2023: A Goodbye from the Author

Fred Borch and his wife, Janet, pose for a photo during Fred’s retirement reception at TJAGLCS in Charlottesville, VA. (Credit: Billie Suttles, TJAGLCS)

The Lore of the Corps 2010-2023

A Goodbye from the Author

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By Fred L. Borch III

The end of 2023 will also be the end of the Lore of the Corps series of short legal history articles—at least by me. I suspect, however, that the new Regimental Historian, Dr. Nick Roland, may want to continue writing for The Army Lawyer. And I hope so!

As I finish my tenure as the Regimental Historian and Archivist for our Corps, I am convinced that a key element in my success as your historian was getting our history out to a wide audience—and the Lore of the Corps did just that.

I wish I could claim that it was my idea to write these articles, but it was not. Rather, the impetus for the Lore of the Corps came from then-Captain (now-Lieutenant Colonel (LTC)) Ronald T.P. “Ron” Alcala, who today serves as a professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In 2010, LTC Alcala was the editor of The Army Lawyer, which was published monthly by the Administrative and Civil Law Department at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS). He suggested that I write a short article on a legal history topic that would be the lead feature in every issue—a sort of “hook” to attract readership. As they say, the “rest is history,” and a Lore of the Corps has appeared in every issue of The Army Lawyer for the last thirteen years.

The articles range from a discussion of war crimes committed by American Soldiers in Germany and Italy in World War II and a history of women in the Corps to an examination of who served as an Army lawyer in World War I and a history of legal clerks and paralegal specialists in the Army. More than anything else, I have tried to write on the widest range of legal history topics.

To bring the many years of articles together in one place, the Corps published a compilation of all Lore of the Corps pieces published between 2010 and 2017; this volume has recently been reprinted (it was out-of-print) and is now available from your Regimental Historian at TJAGLCS. A companion volume, which collects all articles published between 2017 and 2023, has just been printed and is being distributed throughout the active, Reserve, and National Guard legal communities. Additional copies may be obtained from your Regimental Historian.

The Judge Advocate General’s Corps has a rich history, and as the Corps approaches its 250th birthday in our Army, much more needs to be written about those men and women who have served our Army as judge advocates, legal administrators, and paralegal specialists. It is my hope that The Army Lawyer will continue to be a vehicle for getting our wonderful history out to every post, camp, and station in the Army footprint. TAL

 

Fred L. Borch III

 

Regimental Historian & Archivist

Professor of Legal History & Leadership

The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, Virginia