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JAG Flag course combines legal, political, environmental factors in deployed setting

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Christopher S. Stoltz
  • Air University Public Affairs
MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. --  The Judge Advocate General's school hosted a JAG Flag field training exercise as part of the JAG operational-law course May 17-27 at the Vigilant Warrior training site in Wetumpka.

This ten-day course trains judge advocates and paralegals to identify and analyze legal and political implications of international military operations, teaches students how to apply legal principles and reinforces the JAG paralegal team concept.

"JAG Flag prepares servicemembers for deployed life in their respective career fields," said Tech. Sgt. Matthew J. Shively, NCO in charge, Operations and International Law Division for JAG. "I feel JAG Flag is a critical component to their training and it provides a glimpse of what could happen in the field."

"The experience may be strenuous for the students, but the overall goal of JAG Flag is purely educational," said Sergeant Shively. "Although we focus on education at JAG Flag, we try to make it a stressful and team-building experience.

Judge advocates and paralegals assigned to deployable positions and judge advocates and paralegals assigned to operations and international law positions may be nominated to attend JAG Flag. Reserve and Air National Guard judge advocates, sister-service judge advocates and international students also may attend.

During the operational law course, students receive lecture and seminar instruction in deployed fiscal law, contingency contracting, law of armed conflict, legal assistance before and during deployments, deployment-related claims, rules of engagement, joint and combined operations, and civil law issues during deployed operations.

Upon completion of classroom and seminar instruction, students then deploy in judge advocate-paralegal teams to the exercise, which provides a field environment where students apply their classroom learning to specific deployment-related legal scenarios while under the direct supervision of senior judge advocates and paralegals with deployment experience.

The scenarios the students face vary and can sometimes prove cumbersome. During one scenario, the students find themselves in a foreign country attempting to establish whether a person captured by a simulated CIA agent can be detained under the Laws of Armed Conflict. They must assess the situation, establish the person's rights and then implement their decision.

A marshal, played by a senior judge advocate, then discusses the scenario with the students, identifies the proper legal solution and critiques what the students did right and wrong.

Senior Airman Tiffany Vandross, general law paralegal, and Capt. Sarah Kress, chief of administrative discharges with the 355th Fighter Wing/JA, Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tuscon, Ariz., said the exercise helped prepare them for real world situations.

"JAG Flag is no walk in the park," said Captain Kress. "We are provided limited time and resources, and need to perform with haste and precision."

"We have to rely on each other and work as a team in a field environment," said Airman Vandross. "It may be strenuous and tough, but it is a great experience."