Upon entering an institute of higher education, pay attention—can you feel the difference between a place where minds expand freely toward solutions and inventions as yet unknown and a place where relative success has stagnated growth and dulled mental sharpness?

News & Notes 2020 Issue 5

As the primary attorney to Army Applications Lab (AAL), Army Futures Command’s tech-focused outreach organization, I began a curated professional development program to understand how a company might build a business model around the Army as its target market. After reading my first book, I was not very optimistic.

On 14 July 1943, about 1300, near the Biscari airport in Sicily, Captain (CPT) John T. Compton, a company commander serving in the 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division, ordered his men to execute thirty-six prisoners of war (POWs).

The Judge Advocate General (TJAG) expects the daily actions of every member of the Judge Advocate Legal Services (JALS) to reflect an unwavering commitment to the highest standards of ethical conduct, founded on the premise that service to our nation is not only an honor, but a responsibility.

In February 1945, United Press International (UPI) war correspondent Robert Vermillion visited the positions of the 100th Infantry Division in Alsace—near Bitché, France. His intent was to interview a sniper—from Wagoner, Oklahoma, in L Company, 399th Infantry Regiment—who was credited with killing more than 130 German troops.

After almost three years of staffing, on 24 July 2020, the U.S. Army updated the previous version of Army Regulation (AR) 600-20, dated 6 November 2014.

Judge advocates (JAs) are frequently asked to compile a comprehensive list of all of a commander’s authorities—this is not an easy task. Judge advocates know that authorities are derived from a vast library of resources—from the Constitution, to laws and statutes, all the way down to regulations, directives, policies, and orders.

The National Security Council (NSC) is a statutory body formed shortly after World War II (WWII) pursuant to the National Security Act of 1947, as amended (the Act). The NSC staff supports the mission of the NSC, the National Security Advisor (NSA), and the President of the United States as an “advise and assist” component of the Executive Office of the President.

Like a busy intersection, it is difficult to navigate the varied military policies that govern medical accessions, standards of medical fitness for continued service, separation of non-deployable Service members, and medically-based assignment limitations. Soldiers diagnosed with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) lay at the busy intersection of these converging areas of law and life.

When there is a military justice action—whether court-martial, Article 15, or reprimand—our Corps is well-versed in the follow-on actions required. From post-trial procedures to administrative separations, judge advocates (JAs) can smoothly guide our commands through the sometimes-intricate processes to maintain good order and discipline.

13 March 2020 started like any other day. I went on a long run that would energize me. I prepared for my last day of class, where I would re-certify as a military instructor. Everything was falling into place. Soon, I would permanently change stations (PCS) and slowly begin the transition to the next chapter of my career as a fellow at the U.S. Army Sergeants Major Academy.

Promotion Review Boards (PRBs) are not widely understood throughout the Army. Unlike other Army actions, for which an officer can reach out to peers and mentors for guidance, most people who have gone through a PRB do not publicize their knowledge of the system.

Last spring, A. Benjamin Spencer, a judge advocate captain in the U.S. Army Reserve and a nationally-renowned civil procedure and federal courts expert, was appointed Dean of the William and Mary Law School, the nation’s first—and one of the most prestigious—law schools.

Irresistible to pun lovers and self-styled comedians, the words “space law” can elicit a variety of reactions: curiosity, humor, or even confusion.

Justice Ginsburg’s dissent champions what she describes as “‘a more majestic conception’ of...the exclusionary rule,” which would exclude evidence even where deterrence does not justify doing so. Majestic or not, our cases reject this conception, and perhaps for this reason, her dissent relies almost exclusively on previous dissents to support its analysis.

A strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the end to the means.

To succeed in the emerging security environment, our Department and Joint Force will have to out-think, out-maneuver, out-partner, and out-innovate revisionist powers, rogue regimes, terrorists, and other threat actors.

The Army is on the precipice of a fundamental shift. Modernization will displace readiness as the Army’s top priority in 2022.1 To be clear, readiness will remain an important line of effort beyond 2022—much like how the renewed emphasis on readiness several years ago did not eliminate the Army’s focus on stability operations.