Lore of the Corps: Members of the Regiment Interred in Arlington National Cemetery

Arlington National Cemetery.

Lore of the Corps

Members of the Regiment Interred in Arlington National Cemetery

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By Fred L. Borch III

Situated on a wooded hillside across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., Arlington National Cemetery (ANC) is one of America’s most revered shrines. Remains of veterans from every U.S. war from the American Revolution to the present conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are interred in the cemetery.

The graveyard was established in 1864 on the estate of Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Union Army Quartermaster General Montgomery Meigs chose Lee’s property as the cemetery’s site as retribution for Lee’s “treasonous act” of resigning his U.S. Army commission and joining the Confederacy.1 Today, more than 400,000 men, women, and children are buried in the ANC.2 Funerals, including interments and inurnments (burial of cremated remains), average between twenty-seven to thirty daily.3 This means that ANC carries out nearly 7,000 burials every year.

Thousands and thousands of Americans visit ANC each year to see the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and visit President John F. Kennedy’s grave (and those of his wife, Jacqueline, and his brothers, Senators Robert F. “Bobby” and Edward “Teddy” Kennedy, who are buried nearby). They also may see the headstones of 396 recipients of the Medal of Honor, like Gregory “Pappy” Boyington, the famous Marine aviator whose memoir, Baa Baa Black Sheep4 later became a popular television series. Two Operation Iraqi Freedom Medal of Honor recipients also are interred in ANC, as well as other U.S. military personnel from all branches who were killed in action in Afghanistan and Iraq.5

The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) and the Deputy Judge Advocate General (DJAG) visit ANC several times a month to honor those buried there—especially those men and women with connections to the Corps. What follows (in alphabetical order) are brief biographical sketches and photographs of sixteen headstones belonging to individuals who have served in the Regiment. The headstone’s site location in the ANC accompanies each of the sixteen entries.

MG Ernest Michael Brannon.

BRANNON, Ernest Michael Section 11, Site 612-16

Born in Ocoee, Florida, on 21 December 1895, “Mike” Brannon entered the U.S. Military Academy in 1917. Following an accelerated graduation from West Point in 1918, Brannon commissioned as a second lieutenant but, when the Armistice occurred just months later, he and his classmates returned to West Point for another year as student officers.

After five years as an Infantry officer, Brannon was detailed to Columbia University to pursue a course of instruction in its law school but, before he could complete his studies, Brannon was transferred to the law department at West Point to serve as an instructor. In 1930, then-Captain (CPT) Brannon was detailed to the Judge Advocate General’s Department (JAGD), and returned to Columbia to resume his law studies. He obtained his LL.B. in 1931.

Brannon then served in a variety of legal assignments, including: Assistant Staff Judge Advocate (ASJA), II Corps, Governors Island, New York; Chief of Contracts, Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG); Judge Advocate, First U.S. Army; Staff Judge Advocate (SJA), Fort Jackson, South Carolina; SJA, Fort Benning, Georgia; and Procurement Judge Advocate, Headquarters, Army Service Forces. Major General Mike Brannon served as TJAG from 1950 to 1954, and faced three significant challenges during this tour of duty: increased Cold War tensions in Europe; implementation of the newly enacted Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) during combat in Korea; and re-establishment of The Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army (TJAGSA) after its 1946 de-activation.

MG Arthur Winton Brown (shown here as a colonel).

BROWN, Arthur Winton Section 2, Site E-153-RH7

Born in Davenport, Iowa, on 9 November 1873, Arthur W. Brown received his LL.B. from Cornell University Law School in 1897. When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Brown enlisted in the Utah Light Artillery and served as a private, corporal, and sergeant in the Philippine Islands.

In January 1900, Brown commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant in the Regular Army and was still wearing crossed-rifles on his collar when he served as the acting judge advocate of the U.S. Expeditionary Forces at Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1914. Two years later, then-CPT Brown obtained a commission as a major (MAJ) in the JAGD and, after a short time in Washington, D.C., MAJ Brown sailed for France as the judge advocate for the 78th Division.

Soon after joining Pershing’s American Expeditionary Force, Colonel (COL) Brown was appointed as the Judge Advocate, Third Army. He subsequently participated in the Aisne-Marne, Oise-Aisne, and Meuse-Argonne engagements, and later served as the Chief Claims Officer, Rents, Requisitions and Claims Service in France and Germany.

Colonel Brown returned to the United States in 1920 and, after only a few weeks in OTJAG, was sent to Panama to assume duties as the Department Judge Advocate, Panama Canal Department. After three years in this position, Brown served in a variety of legal jobs until he was appointed as TJAG in February 1934. Major General Brown retired in 1937 and died on 3 January 1958 in St Petersburg, Florida.

MG Myron Cady Cramer, circa 1941 (right).

CRAMER, Myron Cady Section 2, Site 1220-38

Major General Cramer served as TJAG from 1941 to 1945. During his tenure, the JAGD underwent an unprecedented expansion in personnel—from 190 to more than 2,162.9 Judge advocates who served with Cramer also tackled legal and policy issues not previously faced by Army lawyers, including the imposition of martial law in the Hawaiian islands and the creation and staffing of the first-ever TJAGSA at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Born in Portland, Connecticut, on 6 November 1881, Myron Cramer obtained an undergraduate degree from Wesleyan University and his law degree from Harvard. He then practiced law in New York City before moving to Tacoma, Washington, where he engaged in the general practice of law.

In 1911, Cramer began his Army career when he enlisted in the Washington National Guard as a private. Shortly thereafter, he commissioned as a second lieutenant of the cavalry and, when Soldiers from his National Guard unit were mobilized for service on the border with Mexico in 1916, Cramer went with them. When the United States entered World War I in April 1917, Cramer was again federalized and went overseas in January 1918 as a captain with the 41st Division. He returned to the United States as a lieutenant colonel in July 1919.

Myron Cramer missed soldiering, and so he applied for a commission as a judge advocate. In July 1920, he was offered an appointment as a Regular Army major in the JAGD, which he quickly accepted. Major Cramer subsequently served as the judge advocate for both the 3d and 4th Divisions, then located at Fort Lewis, Washington. He also served as an assistant professor of law at West Point and as a judge advocate in the Philippine Department in Manila. Then-COL Cramer was serving as the Chief, Contracts Division, OTJAG, when he was selected to be TJAG. He made history early in his career as TJAG when, in concert with U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle, Cramer prosecuted German U-boat saboteurs at a military commission, becoming the first TJAG since the Civil War to prosecute this type of tribunal.10

After retiring in 1945, Major General Cramer was recalled to active duty to serve as the lone American judge on the eleven-nation International Military Tribunal, Far East in Tokyo. He returned to civilian life in 1949 and resumed the private practice of law in Washington, D.C. Myron C. Cramer died on 25 March 1966 at the age of eighty-four years old.11

MG Enoch Herbert Crowder (2nd from left).

CROWDER, Enoch Herbert Section SPEC: 1812

TheArmy Lawyerrecently published two articles with much detail about Major General Crowder’s life and career;13 thus, the information that follows is brief. Born in a log cabin in Missouri in 1859, “Bert” Crowder obtained an appointment to West Point in 1877. After graduating and commissioning into the cavalry, he served in a variety of locations and assignments. He studied law while stationed in Texas and passed the bar in 1884. Crowder did not join the JAGD until 1891. He then served in a variety of important assignments, including serving as a judge on the Philippine supreme court. Crowder was promoted to major general and assumed duties as the Judge Advocate General (tJAG) in 1911. During World War I, he also was the Army’s Provost Marshal General and was in charge of implementing the newly enacted Selective Service Act, the first draft since the Civil War.

After retiring in 1923, Crowder was appointed as the first U.S. ambassador to Cuba, a post he held until 1927. Crowder died in Chicago, Illinois, in 1932.14

SGM Cornell Winston Gilmore.

GILMORE, Cornell Winston Section 60, Site 813115

Sergeant Major Gilmore, then serving as the Regimental Sergeant Major of the Corps, was killed in action on 7 November 2003. He was participating in an Article 6 inspection with TJAG Tom Romig when the helicopter in which Gilmore was a passenger was shot down by either a surface-to-air missile or rocket propelled grenade over Tikrit, Iraq.

A native of Baltimore, Maryland, Cornell “Gil” Gilmore graduated from the University of Maryland in 1980 with a B.S. in sociology. After enlisting in the Army in 1981, and qualifying as a legal specialist, Gilmore served in a variety of assignments and locations, including: 5th Combat Aviation Battalion, Fort Polk, Louisiana; 3d Squadron, 12th Cavalry, Germany; U.S. Disciplinary Barracks, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; 1st Armored Division, Germany; 3d Infantry Division, Germany; 25th Infantry Division, Hawaii; and I Corps, Fort Lewis, Washington.

Sergeant Major Gilmore is the highest decorated noncommissioned officer in the history of the JAG Corps; he was awarded a posthumous Distinguished Service Medal for his exceptionally meritorious service in a position of great responsibility in November 2003.

MG Alton H. Harvey.

HARVEY, Alton H.
Section 60, Site 81316

Major General “Al” Harvey served as TJAG from 1979 to 1981. Born in McComb, Mississippi, on 11 April 1932, Harvey enlisted in the Army in January 1951. He served with distinction as an infantryman during the Korean War, receiving the Bronze Star Medal with V for Valor device, Purple Heart, and Combat Infantryman Badge. He was a senior parachutist and also Ranger qualified.

After leaving active duty, Harvey earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Mississippi. He then returned to active duty in the JAG Corps in 1958. He subsequently served in various judge advocate assignments, including overseas in both Thailand and Vietnam. After retiring in 1981, Major General Harvey became the Dean of the Mississippi College of Law. He retired from this position in 1991. Harvey died in Fort Myers, Florida, on 23 April 2005.

MG Kenneth Joe Hodson, circa 1967.

HODSON, Kenneth Joe Section 3, Site 1374-B17

An immensely popular officer who served as a judge advocate in Europe in World War II, Major General Hodson was TJAG from 1967 to 1971. He was one of the principal authors of the Military Justice Act of 1968.

Born in Kansas on 27 April 1913, “Ken” Hodson earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the University of Kansas in 1935 and 1937, respectively. He then practice law in Jackson, Wyoming, until 1941, when he was ordered to active duty.

Hodson joined the Army in 1934, when he commissioned as a second lieutenant of artillery in the Officers’ Reserve Corps. He subsequently served as a battery motor officer, battery commander, and assistant inspector general with various units.

In September 1942, Hodson transferred to the JAGD and assumed duties as the Assistant Judge Advocate, Trinidad Sector and Base Command. Two years later, now-MAJ Hodson was the Judge Advocate of the 52d Medium Port at Fort Hamilton, New York. The following year, he sailed for France, where he assumed duties as Assistant Judge Advocate, Normandy Base Section. Major Hodson finished World War II as the ASJA, U.S. Constabulary.

After returning to the United States in 1948, Hodson served in a number of assignments and locations. His specialty was military justice, and he wrote the procedural chapters of the 1951 Manual for Courts-Martial after Congress enacted the UCMJ in 1950. Hodson would later serve as the Chief of OTJAG’s Military Justice Division. Due to his expertise in criminal law, every year at The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS) there is a lecture in his honor.

After assuming duties as TJAG in July 1967, Major General Hodson was the Defense Department’s congressional liaison to Senator Sam Ervin’s Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights, which was developing legislation that would amend the UCMJ. The “enlightened military leadership” of General Hodson was critical to both the formulation of this legislation and its ultimate passage as the Military Justice Act of 1968.

After retiring in 1971, Hodson was immediately recalled to active duty to serve as the Chief Judge, U.S. Court of Military Review (today’s Army Court of Criminal Appeals). He was the first general officer to serve in that appellate judicial capacity and, while Major General Hodson was in that position, the Corps had an unprecedented three major generals on active duty. Ken Hodson died on 11 November 1995.

Today, the American Bar Association (ABA) honors Hodson’s distinguished public service career with its “Hodson Award,” which recognizes sustained outstanding service or a specific extraordinary accomplishment by a government or public sector law office. Major General Hodson had previously served as the Chairman of the ABA’s Committee on Criminal Justice Standards.

MG Hubert Don Hoover.

HOOVER, Hubert Donald Section 30, Site 1093-A18

Born in Bedford, Iowa, on 15 October 1897, Hubert Hoover earned an LL.B. and J.D. from the University of California and, after passing the California bar in 1911, practiced law in Los Angeles as a member of the Law Firm of Manning, Thompson & Hoover.

He joined the Army in August 1917 as an infantry Reserve lieutenant and then served as the judge advocate for the 91st Division from October 1917 until the end of World War I. Having obtained a commission as a captain in the JAGD in June 1918, Hoover remained in the Army in the 1920s and 1930s.

During World War II, then-COL Hoover served first in Washington before deploying to Algeria, North Africa, in 1943 to assume duties as the Assistant Judge Advocate, Branch Office of the Judge Advocate General, Mediterranean Theater of Operations, U.S. Army. When the branch office moved from Algeria to Italy, Hoover went with it; he finished the war in Naples, Italy. Returning to Washington, he served on the War Department’s clemency board before being promoted to major general and assuming duties as The Assistant Judge Advocate General (today’s DJAG). Hoover retired in 1948. When he died at the age of eighty-three, he was living in Silver Spring, Maryland.

COL Edward Hunter’s gravestone.

HUNTER, Edward
Section E-2, Site 100619

Born in Gardiner, Maine, on 22 November 1839, COL Edward Hunter graduated from the U.S. Military Academy in 1865. He spent his early years in the 12th Infantry Regiment and took part in military operations against the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, Kiowa, Comanche, and Nez Perce.

After a promotion to captain in 1880, Hunter transferred to Fort Walla Walla, Washington, Territory (now the city of Walla Walla, Washington). After a short tour in Washington, D.C., as an examiner of claims arising out of the Civil War, CPT Hunter returned to the Department of California in San Francisco. He first served as adjutant of the 12th Infantry Regiment before transferring to the 1st Cavalry Regiment and assuming duties as its quartermaster and adjutant.

After reading law while serving in California, and passing the California bar in 1888, Hunter commissioned as a major in the JAGD. In 1895, Lieutenant Colonel (LTC) Hunter transferred to the Department of Dakota at Fort Snelling, Minnesota. When the United States declared war on Spain in 1898, Hunter deployed to Puerto Rico, where he served as the judge advocate to General John R. Brooke. A Civil War veteran who had fought at Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, and Cold Harbor, Brooke commanded I Corps in the invasion of Puerto Rico and remained on the island as the head of the army of occupation after Spain’s surrender.

In 1901, Hunter was promoted to colonel and finished his career as the judge advocate for the Department of the East at Governors Island, New York.20 He retired at the mandatory retirement age of sixty-four and died at Mount Vernon, New York, on 12 October 1928. Colonel Hunter was eighty-eight years old.21

BG Norman Lieber.

LIEBER, Guido Norman
Section 122

The son of Dr. Francis Lieber, the author of General Orders No. 100 (the so-called “Lieber Code”), Norman Lieber served as Acting Judge Advocate General from 1884 to 1895 and as tJAG from 1895 to 1901. Born in Columbia, South Carolina, in 1837, Lieber graduated from South Carolina College in 1856 and earned his LL.B. from Harvard Law School in 1858.

He practiced law in New York City until the start of the Civil War, when he commissioned into the Regular Army as an infantry lieutenant in the Union Army. Lieber subsequently saw combat at the Battle of Gaines Mill and the Second Battle of Bull Run.

Then-CPT Lieber was appointed as a judge advocate of Volunteers in late 1862 and finished the war as a lieutenant colonel of Volunteers. He decided to remain in the Army and was made a Regular Army judge advocate major in 1867. Lieber was Acting Judge Advocate General after the Judge Advocate General, Brigadier General David G. Swaim, had been convicted by court-martial and sentenced to be suspended from rank and duty for twelve years. After Swaim retired in 1894 (Swaim’s sentence was remitted to ten years), Lieber became tJAG. Lieber retired from active duty in 1901 and died on 23 April 1923 in Washington, D.C.

LTC Sally MacDonald.

McDONALD, Sally Roe Section 55, Site 376723

Born on 9 August 1975, LTC McDonald graduated from the 160th Judge Advocate Basic Course in 2003 and earned her LL.M. after completing the 59th Graduate Course in 2011. Sally served at III Corps and Fort Hood. She also deployed to Iraq as an administrative law attorney for 13th Corps Support Command. Additionally, she served as a senior defense counsel in Germany, professor at the Administrative and Civil Law Division at TJAGLCS, and Chief of Military Justice at XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg. Lieutenant Colonel McDonald was the Associate Dean for Students at TJAGLCS at the time of her death. She was an immensely popular officer, and her untimely death was the result of a brain aneurism suffered while she was on active duty.

MAJ Parker’s gravestone.

PARKER, John A.
Section 7, Site 1003024

Major Parker’s marker is unusual because it shows only a date of death—19 March 1933. There also is no way to tell from his headstone that he was a member of the Regiment. But he was, and his demise was untimely.

“3 Army Officers Die in Plane Crash/Hit Fog Over Virginia” screams the headline in a newspaper story. The narrative that follows says that an Army transport plane piloted by Lieutenant James A. Willis Jr. crashed near Petersburg, Virginia, on March 20, 1933. There were two passengers on the C-19, a single engine five passenger transport. One was Major Parker and the other was Major James A. Willis Sr., the father of the pilot. The three Army officers were flying from Spartanburg, South Carolina, to Washington, D.C., when they were killed.

Born in Harnett County, North Carolina, Parker graduated from the University of North Carolina in 1906. The newspaper report of Parker’s death also states that “[d]uring the World War he was connected with the Judge Advocate General’s office overseas and has since been stationed in Washington and for a while in Panama.”

MG George S. Prugh Jr.

PRUGH Jr., George Shipley Section 66, Grave 19425

George Prugh Jr. served as TJAG from 1971 to 1975. Born in Norfolk, Virginia, on 1 June 1920, he graduated from the University of California at Berkeley in 1941 and then served as a Coast Artillery Corps officer in World War II. After leaving active duty in May 1945, Prugh entered Hastings College of the Law at the University of California, San Francisco.

In May 1948, he received his J.D. and, after admission to the California bar, reported for duty with the JAG Corps. Prugh served in various locations and positions, including: SJA, Rhine Military Post, Kaiserslautern, Germany, and SJA, U.S. Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. During his tenure in Saigon from 1964 to 1966, then-COL Prugh persuaded his South Vietnamese counterpart that applying the Geneva Prisoners of War Convention to Viet Cong captives was in South Vietnam’s best interest—a key factor in that government’s subsequent decision to construct prison camps for enemy captives and to ensure their humane treatment during imprisonment. Prugh also authored the first-ever directive on how violations of the law of war should be investigated and who should investigate them.

In August 1966, COL Prugh assumed duties as Legal Advisor, U.S. European Command, in St-Germain-en-Laye, France, and later Stuttgart, Germany. On 1 May 1969, he became the Judge Advocate, U.S. Army, Europe and 7th Army, Heidelberg, Germany. Later that year, he was promoted to Brigadier General. Prugh became TJAG on 1 July 1971. During his four years in office, he provided legal advice to the Army’s leadership on the Calley war crimes trial and appeals. Prugh was very much an activist when it came to the law of armed conflict and, in 1972, he was a member of the U.S. delegations to two conferences of experts meeting in Switzerland to review the Geneva Conventions Relative to the Law of Armed Conflict. In 1973, he also participated in the Diplomatic Conferences on the Law of War that resulted in the two Additional Protocols to the Geneva Conventions. Due to Prugh’s expertise in military legal history, there is a lecture in his name every year.

General Prugh retired from active duty in the summer of 1975 and returned to California. He subsequently taught law at the Hastings College of the Law, University of California, until retiring in 1982. General Prugh died on 6 July 2006.

CPT Rock’s gravestone.

ROCK, Logan Norman Section 2, Site 469326

Some months ago, Lieutenant General Charles N. Pede took a photograph of CPT Rock’s headstone (which reflects an obvious connection to the Corps) and asked for information about Rock. Who was he? What did he do as a judge advocate?

Official military records obtained from the National Archives and Records Administration in St. Louis, Missouri, do not indicate that Rock was an Army lawyer. What they do show is that he went by “Logan” and not “Norman” and that he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, on 8 February 1890. Logan Rock entered the Army on 5 August 1917, when he commissioned as a National Guard infantry second lieutenant. He was twenty-seven years old and presumably had completed his education—although his records are silent on this point. Assigned to 38th Division, First Lieutenant Rock trained at Camp Shelby, Mississippi, before sailing for Europe. Rock arrived in France on 6 October 1918, only a month before the Armistice, and remained in Europe until 24 January 1920.

While there is no evidence in Rock’s military records that he was a lawyer or a judge advocate, the Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States recorded “Appointments in the Regular Army of the United States,” and shows that Rock was appointed a JAGD captain in January 1921.27 Given that the Army had drastically reduced its numbers after World War I, and that there were only 114 judge advocates in the entire Army after the enactment of the National Defense Act of 1920, Rock must have been a lawyer and have had an excellent record to obtain an appointment.28

Just what did CPT Rock do while serving as an Army lawyer? His military records reflect only that Rock left the JAGD on 2 January 1924, when he was honorably discharged.29 Some information on his legal practice, however, is contained in a 27 January 1937 letter from his wife, Lillian N. Rock, to The Adjutant General. Lillian Rock wrote that her husband was in the infantry until “after the Armistice” [11 November 1918] when “he was transferred to The Judge Advocate General’s Department.”30 He then “tried cases in Belgium and France until January 1920 at which time he was sent back to Washington and reported for duty in the J.A.G.D.”31

Why would Rock join the JAGD in 1920 and leave four years later? There is no way to know. But, the 1920s and 1930s were a very tough time in the Army. Promotions were extraordinarily slow in an active force that was down to 131,000 soldiers by 1923 and never more than 190,000 men until 1940.32 Since thirty years of active duty was the minimum amount of time required for retirement in this era, and since a Regular Army officer was not required to retire until reaching the age of sixty-four, this means that a junior officer like Rock could only advance in rank if a Regular Army judge advocate senior to him by date of rank retired or otherwise left active duty. It follows that CPT Rock may well have decided to leave the JAGD because he thought he might do better as a lawyer in the civilian world.

In any event, Rock’s military records show that in the late 1920s, he and his wife (Lillian) and daughter (Sarah) were living in New York City, where International Telephone and Telegraph (IT&T) Corporation employed Rock.33 At some point, probably in the early 1930s, IT&T transferred Rock and his family to Madrid, Spain, where he assumed duties as the Vice President and General Manager of the National Telephone Company of Spain.34

Rock’s life abruptly ended in Madrid, Spain, when he died at his home on 20 June 1936. His death certificate records that he died of “cardiac insufficiency, the fundamental cause being agranulocytosis.” Surviving him were his wife Lillian and daughter Sarah.

In July 1914, then twenty-five-year-old Rock married eighteen-year-old Lillian Nina Davis in Jacksonville, Florida. She now was a widow in her very early forties with a child, and far away from home. Moreover, it was a tumultuous time in Spain, given that a civil war had broken out. This explains why Lillian Rock wrote in a January 1937 letter to the War Department that “due to conditions in Spain at that time [her husband’s death] I left everything there except my clothes.”35

Despite the untimely death of her husband, Lillian and her daughter were fortunate, in that Rock converted his Army War Risk Insurance to a U.S. Government Life Insurance policy when he left active duty in 1924. Additionally, he had kept up the monthly $7.40 premium on it. As a result, Lillian Rock was the beneficiary of this $10,000 policy—a sizeable sum in an era when many Americans were still suffering from the effects of the Great Depression.

Rock’s military records reflect that he was “buried at Arlington Cemetery July 24, 1936” and his remains are marked by the headstone photographed by Lieutenant General Pede. The JAGD branch insignia carved on his grave marker indicates that Rock’s widow thought it was important that this connection be evident to all who saw his headstone. Since her husband died so unexpectedly, it seems likely that Lillian Rock made the decision to have the crossed-pen-and-sword insignia placed on her husband’s grave, and the Corps must thank her for doing this. Otherwise, it probably would never be known to the Corps that Logan Rock was a member of the Regiment.

CW5 Sharon T. Swartworth, circa 2003.

SWARTWORTH, Sharon Therese
Section 60, Site 812936

Chief Warrant Officer Five (CW5) Swartworth was serving as the Regimental Warrant Officer when the UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter in which she was a passenger was shot down near Tikrit, Iraq on 7 November 2003. She is the first and only judge advocate legal administrator to die in combat and, as the recipient of a posthumous Distinguished Service Medal, is the most highly decorated warrant officer in JAG Corps history.

Born in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1959, Sharon enlisted in the Army in 1977. In 1985, she was selected to attend Warrant Officer Candidate School and become a legal administrator. During her career as a warrant officer, she served in a variety of assignments, including Training, Advising, and Counseling (TAC) officer, Warrant Officer Candidate School, Fort McCoy, Wisconsin, and Director, Operations for Legal Technology, OTJAG. On 21 July 1999, CW5 Swartworth assumed duties as the Regimental Warrant Officer of the JAG Corps, serving as the primary advisor to TJAG on the roles and responsibilities of legal administrators in the Corps.

MG Lawrence Harvey Williams.

WILLIAMS, Lawrence Harvey Section 30, Grave 42-137

The headstone for Major General Williams has JAG Corps insignia and two stars—which speak for themselves, as he was The Assistant Judge Advocate General (TAJAG) (today’s Deputy Judge Advocate General) from 1975 to 1979. Also, “Larry” Williams qualified as a navigator in World War II, and had served in North Africa, France, and Germany in World War II. Consequently, the Army Navigator Badge was carved on his marker.38

After World War II, Williams left active duty and obtained an undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and a law degree from the University of Colorado. In 1948, he returned to active duty in the JAG Corps, and served at OTJAG in the Pentagon and on the staff and faculty in the newly established TJAGSA in Charlottesville. From 1961 to 1964, then-LTC Williams served as the SJA at the 3d Armored Division. His division commander was the celebrated Major General Creighton Abrams who, along with General George Patton, is considered by military historians to be one of the greatest tank commanders of World War II.39 General Abrams had such confidence in LTC Williams’s abilities that when Abrams relieved the division G-1 from his duties, he chose Williams to serve as the G-1 in addition to his duties as SJA.

Major General Williams served as the SJA, III Corps, before deploying to Vietnam in 1969, where he assumed duties as the SJA, Military Assistance Command, Vietnam. After returning to OTJAG in 1970, Williams served as the Assistant Judge Advocate General for Military Law before being selected to be TAJAG in 1975. Williams retired in 1979 and died of cancer in northern Virginia on 17 May 1999. He was seventy-six years old.

CW5 Swartworth’s gravestone.

Conclusion

While there are many more members of the Regiment interred among the 400,000 individuals interred in the cemetery, many of these individuals are unknown to us—because there is no database that records whether a Soldier buried in ANC was a judge advocate, legal administrator, or paralegal specialist. The grave of Logan Rock, for example, was only recently spotted and, were it not for the crossed-pen-and-sword on his headstone, there would have been no way to know that Rock had prior service as an Army lawyer.

As for the future of the ANC and the Regiment, this is an open question. Due to limited space, the Army recently proposed restrictions on eligibility for interment. The most significant change is that a Soldier who retired from active duty (and received retirement pay) is no longer eligible for an “in ground burial” in ANC.40 Regardless of what happens in the future, however, the ANC will remain hallowed ground for the Regiment. TAL

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Mr. Borch is the Historian, Archivist, and Professor of Legal History at TJAGLCS.

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Notes

1. Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/ (last visited Feb. 7, 2020) (Find a Grave is a popular website that lists “over 180 million memorials” and gravesites).

Don Denmark, Arlington National Cemetery, in Historical Dictionary of the U.S. Army 32 (Jerold E. Brown ed., 2001). Lee obtained the beautiful property, which belonged to General George Washington, when he married the granddaughter and heiress of Mrs. Custis, whose second husband had been Washington, but by whom she had no children. Field Marshall Viscount Wolseley, General Lee, in Lee: The Soldier 98 (Gary Gallagher ed., 1996).

2. About, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/about (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

3. Id.

4. Baa Baa Black Sheep (Stephen J. Cannell Productions, Universal Television broadcast 1976–1978).

5. About, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, https://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/Explore/Notable-Graves (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

6. The following section’s information is derived from Fred L. Borch, From Infantryman to Contract Attorney to Judge Advocate General, Lore of the Corps 109–11 (2019); The Army Lawyer: A History of the Judge Advocate General’s Corps, 1775–1975, at 200–02 (1975) [hereinafter The Army Lawyer].

7. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 153–54.

8. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 153–54, except for footnoted sentences 9–11.

9. This is the largest number of judge advocates ever to be on active duty in the Army; the Corps today numbers about 1,877 active duty uniformed lawyers. U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Corps, Report of the Judge Advocate General of the Army to the American Bar Association 2 (2019).

10. Army Judge Advocate General Joseph Holt had served as the lead prosecutor in the military commission that tried the Lincoln assassination conspirators in 1865. The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 52–53.

11. Fred L. Borch, Sitting in Judgment: Myron C. Cramer’s Experiences in the Trials of German Saboteurs and Japanese War Leaders, Prologue 34–40 (Summer 2009).

12. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 104–07.

13. Robert W. Runyans, General Pershing and His JAG, Army Law., Nov.-Dec. 2018, at 46, 46–53; Fred L. Borch, Judge Advocates in the Great War, Army Law., Nov.-Dec. 2018, at 10, 11–13.

14. For a comprehensive examination of Crowder, see David A. Lockmiller, Enoch H. Crowder: Soldier, Lawyer and Statesman (1955).

15. The following section’s information is derived from Cornell Winston Gilmore, Command Sergeant Major, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/cwgilmore.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

16. The following section’s information is derived from Alton H. Harvey, Major General, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/ahharvey.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

17. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 241–43; Kenneth Joe Hodson, Major General, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/kjhodson.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

18. The following section’s information is derived from Gen. Hubert Hoover of Army Courts, 83, N.Y. Times, Apr.12, 1971, at 40.

19. The following section’s information is derived from John Rutter Brooke, Major General, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/jrbrooke.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020), except for footnoted sentences 20–21.

20. Edward Hunter (United States Army), Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Hunter_(United_States_Army) (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

21. Id.

22. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 84–86.

23. The following section’s information is derived from Fred L. Borch, In Memoriam, Army Law., Iss. 1, 2019, at 14-15.

24. The following section’s information is derived from John A. Parker, Major, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/japarker.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

25. The following section’s information is derived from The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 256–57.

26. Logan Norman Rock, Official Military Personnel File (1917-1936) (unpublished record) (on file with the author).

27. S. Journal, 66th Cong., 3d Sess. 203 (1921).

28. See The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 138.

29. Letter from Adjutant General’s Office, War Department, to Lillian Davis Rock (Dec. 11, 1936) (on file with author).

30. Letter from Lillian Davis Rock to The Adjutant General, War Department (Jan. 25 1937) (on file with author).

31. Id.

32. The Army Lawyer, supra note 6, at 146.

33. International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation was a part owner of the National Telephone Company of Spain. A House of Representations 1934 “Report on Communications Companies” lists Logan N. Rock as a “Non-director general officer” of IT&T with responsibility as a director over IT&T businesses in Spain and South America. H.R. Rep. No. 1273, at 3797 (1934).

34. Id.

35. Supra note 30.

36. The following section’s information is derived from Sharon T. Swartworth, Chief Warrant Officer 5, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://arlingtoncemetery.net/stswartworth.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020)

37. The following section’s information is derived from Lawrence Harvey Williams, Major General, United States Army, Arlington Nat’l Cemetery, http://www.arlingtoncemetery.net/lhwilli.htm (last visited Feb. 7, 2020).

38. The War Department authorized a “Navigator Badge” for qualified navigators. William K. Emerson, United States Army Badges 23 (2006). The Army Air Force had 32,000 officer navigators by the end of World War II, when the badge stopped being awarded. Id.

39. For a superb biography of Abrams, see Lewis Sorley, Thunderbolt: General Creighton Abrams and the Army of His Times (1993).

40. Safia Samee Ali & Associated Press, Army Proposes New Rules on Who Can be Buried at Arlington National Cemetery, ABC News, https://www.nbcnews.com/news/military/army-proposes-new-rules-who-can-be-buried-arlington-national-n1058846 (last updated Sept. 26, 2019, 10:56 AM).