Judge Advocate General of the Navy
April 10, 2009
Reserve JAG Corps Team:
We have now completed work on the Total Force plan, formerly called Active-Reserve Integration. This plan will align the JAG Corps RC into three pillars of practice providing operational support in the areas of military justice litigation, legal assistance and command services, and specialty practices, including international, environmental, and admiralty law. Having decided upon a plan for our Total Force, work is now underway to place the details of the plan into a JAG Instruction that will be available to everyone, both on the JAG public website, and on the Reserve tab of Navy NKO. Execution is always the hard part of every plan, but we have a system in place to ensure that implementation of the plan will, at every stage, protect those who have served to date, and continue to provide protection until such time as our officers all fall under the new system. Rear Admiral Talson and I will provide further updates on our Total Force plan at the East and West coast Military Law Training Symposiums. In addition, Rear Admiral Talson and Master Chief Luthi will hold several “Town Hall” meetings in fleet concentration areas to brief the Total Force plan to AC/RC judge advocates.
While execution of the Total Force plan has just begun, we already can see benefits of allowing active duty JAGs to tap RC expertise. For example, RLSO Southwest recently hosted an Immigration Law Training Symposium that was attended by almost 100 multi-service attorneys and paralegals. Commander Matt Lee, an RC expert in immigration law, worked with many others to provide valuable training in this area of increasing importance to the Navy. Their efforts will help us maximize Navy Legal Readiness and Sailor Legal Readiness, two of our core competencies. The success of this and other cross-training programs to come will provide legal training that we would otherwise have to dedicate training funds to obtain. Just one example of Total Force teamwork and one we expect to replicate many times in the future.
Total Force is not a one-way street. We continue to integrate RC personnel in important JAG policy and advisory groups, such as the recently conducted JAGC Board of Advisors meeting, where officers and Legalmen met to discuss ways to maintain lines of communication to enable us to improve our legal and personnel management practices. We also released the results of the joint Judicial Screening Board, which announced five new RC trial and appellate judges. These jurists are an essential component of the JAGC judiciary and work as one team in providing highly qualified judges for our military justice litigators.
I also continue to be impressed with your response to calls for operational support. Even as we contemplate an eventual drawdown in requirements in Iraq, the RC continues to provide highly qualified attorneys and Legalmen to fill assignments globally, including billets in Afghanistan. We simply could not do it without the teamwork and sacrifice of our RC personnel. Many thanks to all of you for your superb efforts!
Last week we held a formal retirement ceremony for Rear Admiral Norton Joerg, acknowledging the important work he accomplished in creating our Total Force team, and for the thirty-two years of exemplary service he gave to the Navy and Nation. Countless judge advocates, Legalmen, and civilians around the world are better prepared to meet the Navy’s legal challenges because of his leadership, vision and commitment to us all. Rear Admiral Talson joined me in ensuring that Admiral Joerg was piped ashore properly in accordance with Navy tradition.
Let me close by again stating how proud I am of your hard work, and how grateful I am for your sacrifice and service. There are challenging and exciting times ahead for our Navy JAGC. I believe that our joint working groups have produced a Total Force plan that will ensure a vital and absolutely necessary role for our RC judge advocates and Legalmen for decades to come. As always, I look forward to seeing you all and serving with you in 2009.
Warm regards,
/s/ BRUCE MacDONALD
VADM, JAGC, USN
Judge Advocate General