NAVY RESERVE LAW PROGRAM FLAG E-GRAM
December 1, 2008
To the Navy JAG Corps family and team – Active, Reserve, officer, enlisted, civilian:
Today, I complete over 32 years of commissioned service and have the honor and privilege of turning over the leadership of our Reserve Law Program to Rear Admiral Steve Talson. At the outset, please join me in congratulating Steve on his promotion and on his new responsibilities. I know that we all wish him well and that the entire community will support him as he takes the helm to guide one of its most important components. I also know that he is superbly well-prepared for the task and that he will help the Program achieve many more great things.
I take great satisfaction in the wonderful service and dedication each member of our Reserve Component has brought to the JAG Corps, to the Navy, and to our nation over the last four years. I want to take a moment to make that personal, by addressing each and every one of our outstanding Reserve judge advocates and legalmen directly. I know that the entire community will echo my thoughts.
To every Navy Reserve judge advocate and legalman: As I have said many times before, nothing I have ever done, and nothing that I am ever likely to do, can compare to the great honor and fulfillment I have experienced in leading and supporting every one of you. You have made me supremely proud and done yourselves great credit over and over again, on occasions and in support of missions too numerous to mention. You epitomize the ideals of “twice a citizen” and of the Total Force surpassingly well, and continually amaze our community with your seemingly limitless capacity to contribute, at great personal sacrifice, to the Fleet and our JAG Corps. As VADM MacDonald put it so accurately not long ago, whether your contribution comes via mobilization, annual training, ADT, ADSW, or drills, you take huge amounts of time from families, from jobs, and from your lives, to serve the nation – and you do it while maintaining as best you can those separate things, balancing them and struggling to make it all work in ways that all do not always appreciate.
For all of this, and to each of you, I say Bravo Zulu – Bravo Zulu for putting nation first, Bravo Zulu for giving unstintingly of yourselves, Bravo Zulu to your families for making it possible, Bravo Zulu to your employers for not standing in the way. Whenever we contemplated together that “challenge equals opportunity” – and there have been many opportunities and challenges, to be sure -- you embraced the idea, turned to, and wowed us all. Whether we faced an existential threat to our community some years ago, or whether we faced repeated calls to dig deep again and again to volunteer for mobilizations or extended active duty -- and when we provided that critical, month-to-month continuity to help our JAG Corps team meet the mission -- each of you made critical contributions, many times over. Never forget that you represent the very best our nation has to offer, and we accomplish our shared efforts and mission immeasurably more effectively for all the things that you add, large and small. You should be very proud of this.
It has been a great privilege to stand at the head of such an accomplished, effective and dedicated community. Many, many thanks!
I must turn now to our larger community, to our Active Component counterparts and civilian members. Integration and alignment requires everyone’s contributions, and I have to thank every AC and civilian member for “getting it” – for working harder than ever to make the partnership more seamless than ever. Our RC’s accomplishments depend on your thoughtfulness in using the resources that the RC represents, and on constant communication. Working together, we produce much more than the sum of our parts. It is indeed all about relationships, as RADM McPherson said many times. “Getting it” calls for a Bravo Zulu, and many thanks again, to all!
In supporting this record of accomplishment, alignment and integration, it has been a great pleasure to work with VADM Bruce MacDonald and RADM Jim Houck – leaders who understand what we in the RC bring to the fight. Bruce and Jim have ensured that the RC is integrated and at the center of the mission to a degree we have never enjoyed before, and we are all better for it. That recognition and mindfulness has spread throughout the culture of our community under their leadership – something truly transformational – and they will build a lasting legacy with RDML Talson as we work to shape our RC-AC lash-up for even greater alignment and effectiveness in the future.
It has been an exciting four years. It is time to turn over to fresh leadership for the new challenges and opportunities that we know are coming. It is a good thing, and I have enjoyed an extensive turnover with Admiral Talson. I know that the Reserve Law Program is in very good hands. The right leadership is in place – but, most importantly, our leadership will be bolstered by a superb AC-RC team that, nurtured and enabled, has no limits.
For this, we can all be grateful, confident, and proud. I certainly am, much more than I can possibly say.
Keep it up! Grab every chance to accomplish the mission with all capabilities available to you, for we have great depth in our communities that we have yet to fully plumb. In everything, I wish you all the very, very best!
Warmest regards,
N. C. JOERG
Rear Admiral, JAGC, U.S. Navy
Deputy Judge Advocate General for Reserve Affairs and Operations