The labor counselor down the hall from you is perhaps the best student of the on-again, off-again relationship between managers and employees. In fact, I can recall commenting to my wife, after surviving my first labor counselor action as a young Judge Advocate General’s (JAG) Corps captain at the Presidio of Monterey, the labor counselor’s role felt like a 50/50 split—half-lawyer, half marriage counselor. And, sure enough, more than twenty years later, with most of those years spent practicing labor and employment law, I still believe the vast majority of problems managers have with civilian employees are related to a breakdown of the relationship between the two.

On 27 September 2019, the Secretary of the Army (SA) signed a memorandum, subject Non-Tactical Vehicle (NTV) Policy Guidance, which clarified Army policy regarding the use of NTVs to transportation terminals, including those located in the National Capital Region. It affirmed the capacity of approving officials (AOs) to assess whether such use is appropriate and necessary on a case-by-case basis.

The nature of war is never [going to] change. But the character of war is changing before our eyes—with the introduction of a lot of technology, a lot of societal changes with urbanization and a wide variety of other factors.¹

“That’s not a knife . . . THIS is a knife!”¹
—Crocodile Dundee

While lawyers have been in the Army from the days of the Revolution, there were no female judge advocates until 1944, when Captain (CPT) Phyllis Propp-Fowle, an attorney serving in the Women’s Army Corps (WAC), traded her WAC branch insignia for the crossed-quill-and-sword worn by all officers in the Judge Advocate General’s Department (JAGD). In the more than seventy-five years that have followed Propp-Fowle’s trailblazing career, hundreds and hundreds of female lawyers have served as Army lawyers, and what follows is a short history of their exemplary service in our Corps.

In 1997, local school teacher Susan B. Dyer was out for a long Sunday afternoon drive when she spotted the Holt family mansion. Dyer decided that her mission was to bring awareness of the historical importance of Joseph Holt and the Holt home to people all across Breckinridge County, Kentucky, and all across the nation. As she tells all who will listen, her “heart was touched” by the sight of Holt’s boyhood home. For many years, the house had been vacant and had deteriorated badly.

The following members of our Regiment, in alphabetical order, passed away in 2019.

An Army leader is anyone who, by virtue of assumed role or assigned responsibility, inspires and influences people by providing purpose, direction, and motivation to accomplish the mission and improve the organization.¹

In the Army, the concept of Good Order and Discipline (GOAD) began, perhaps, with its first commander in chief. While commander of the Virginia Regiment during the French and Indian War, then-Lieutenant Colonel George Washington wrote in a letter to his regiment captains, “Discipline is the soul of an army. It makes small numbers formidable; procures success to the weak, and esteem to all.”¹

While judge advocates (JAs) are familiar with the Army’s policy and process for handling equal opportunity (EO) and sexual harassment complaints, many are unfamiliar with the procedures for handling similar complaints by Department of the Army (DA) Civilian employees, which may be available to non-Army personnel, to include contingent workers.¹ As JAs potentially advise on both military and civilian personnel law, understanding these basics, along with how leaders may unwittingly and substantially increase the Army’s financial liability, is imperative.

A federal employee finds a vacancy for a position as a Civilian Senior Executive (CSE)¹ and applies on the website USAjobs.gov. An accusation against this same employee exists in a closed Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) complaint—an accusation of sexually harassing a subordinate that was quickly settled. The Army will never know about it and may choose this person as their best candidate.

“Harassment is the one type of discrimination that can be stopped in progress.” ¹

After successfully completing another rotation through a complex deployment, your commander, Colonel (COL) Rock, had commanded superbly and shown great leadership potential for increased responsibility.¹ In order to prepare him for the next level of command, COL Rock has been given a broadening assignment at a large installation and assumed command of a garrison.² He recognizes that he will be presented with many unfamiliar challenges since he has not served on a garrison staff for quite some time.

The virus known as COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus originating in Hubei, China.¹ Since its discovery in December, the virus has spread the world over. As of 12 March 2020, the World Health Organization reporteds more than 125,000 cases and 4,600 deaths worldwide. Those infected include service members, dependents, and overseas Civilian employees.

“Should the commission, instead of being evidence of an appointment, even be considered as constituting the appointment itself . . . ” ¹

It hasn’t attracted much attention but a seemingly minor quasi-judicial ruling is a prime example of how our acquisition system serves as a means to self-inflicted unilateral disarmament. Unless senior leadership in the Defense Department acts in the next few weeks, this Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) protest decision in favor of Oracle and against the Army and Transportation Command will ensure that China will dominate the future military application of quantum computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning, data analytics, biotechnology, robotics and autonomous operations.¹

On a hot August afternoon at Camp Hood, Texas, in 1944, nine Army officers sat in judgment in the general court-martial of a second lieutenant (2LT) accused of insubordination and disrespect under the Articles of War.¹ The trial would last just four hours and fifteen minutes and result in a full acquittal.²

One of the many types of cases likely to come across your desk as a labor or employment counselor is removal for excessive absences due to a medical condition. Consider this scenario—which is fraught with hazards for even a seasoned labor attorney: a supervisor comes to your office and requests help in dealing with a Civilian employee who is repeatedly out of the office for two, three, or more days a week.

Since 2007, Army installations have found themselves on the receiving end of Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) “group grievances” filed by the same small law firm in Baltimore, Maryland. The FLSA provides minimum standards for wage and compensation, including overtime compensation, for employees in the United States.¹