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THE ARMY LAWYER Headquarters, Department of the Army December 2010 ARTICLES Holding the Line: Understanding the Role of Independent Legal Counsel in Command Decision-Making Major Scott A. DiRocco Sharpening the Quill and Sword: Maximizing Experience in Military Justice Major Derrick W. Grace TJAGLCS PRACTICE NOTES Faculty & Staff, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School ADMINISTRATIVE LAW NOTE Servicemember Education Benefits: Using Government Sponsored Programs to Help Lower or Eliminate Higher Education Costs Lieutenant Colonel Samuel W. Kan LEGAL RESEARCH NOTE New Federal Digital System Provides Improved GPO Access Heather Enderle BOOK REVIEWS Counterinsurgency Reviewed by Major Andrea K. R-Ferrulli Restrepo Reviewed by Captain M. Patrick Gordon CLE News Current Materials of Interest The Army Lawyer Index for 2010 Department of the Army Pamphlet 27-50-451 Editor, Captain Madeline Yanford Assistant Editor, Captain Ronald T. P. Alcala Assistant Editor, Major Ted Martin Technical Editor, Charles J. Strong The Army Lawyer (ISSN 0364-1287, USPS 490-330) is published monthly The Judge Advocate General’s School, U.S. Army. The Army Lawyer by The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School, Charlottesville, welcomes articles from all military and civilian authors on topics of interest to Virginia, for the official use of Army lawyers in the performance of their military lawyers. Articles should be submitted via electronic mail to legal responsibilities. Individual paid subscriptions to The Army Lawyer are [email protected]. Articles should follow The available for $45.00 each ($63.00 foreign) per year, periodical postage paid at Bluebook, A Uniform System of Citation (19th ed. 2010) and the Military Charlottesville, Virginia, and additional mailing offices (see subscription form Citation Guide (TJAGLCS, 15th ed. 2010). No compensation can be paid for on the inside back cover). 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The Editorial Board evaluates all material submitted for publication, the decisions of which are subject to final approval by the Dean, Lore of the Corps Legal Aid for the Soldier: The History of the Army Legal Assistance Program Fred L. Borch III ................................................................................................................................................................... 1 Articles Holding the Line: Understanding the Role of Independent Legal Counsel in Command Decision-Making Major Scott A. DiRocco, USA ................................................................................................................................................ 3 Sharpening the Quill and Sword: Maximizing Experience in Military Justice Major Derrick W. Grace, USA ............................................................................................................................................. 24 TJAGLCS Practice Notes Faculty & Staff, The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center & School Administrative Law Note Servicemember Education Benefits: Using Government Sponsored Programs to Help Lower or Eliminate Higher Education Costs Lieutenant Colonel Samuel W. Kan, USA ............................................................................................................................. 38 Legal Research Note New Federal Digital System Provides Improved GPO Access Heather Enderle ................................................................................................................................................................... 45 Book Reviews Counterinsurgency Reviewed by Major Andrea K. R-Ferrulli, U.S. Air Force .................................................................................................. 46 Restrepo Reviewed by Captain M. Patrick Gordon, USA ................................................................................................................... 50 CLE News ................................................................................................................................................................ 53 Current Materials of Interest ............................................................................................................................. 64 The Army Lawyer Index for 2010 ....................................................................................................................... 66 Individual Paid Subscriptions to The Army Lawyer ................................................................ Inside Back Cover DECEMBER 2010 • THE ARMY LAWYER • DA PAM 27-50-451 Lore of the Corps Legal Aid for the Soldier: The History of the Army Legal Assistance Program Fred L. Borch III Regimental Historian & Archivist While Army lawyers have undoubtedly helped Soldiers On 22 March 1943, a “Legal Assistance Branch” was and their families with their personal legal problems from organized in the Office of The Judge Advocate General to the earliest days of the Republic, such assistance was both supervise the newly instituted legal aid system throughout ad hoc and unofficial for many years. In fact, prior to World the Army.5 By the end of 1943, there were six hundred legal War II, Soldiers who had personal legal questions or who assistance offices in the Army, and by the end of World War wanted to execute a will or obtain a power of attorney had to II, that number had grown to sixteen hundred.6 Each office retain a civilian lawyer at their own expense. When, how, was issued a “basic legal assistance library” or “field kit” and why that changed—and how it resulted in the containing reference materials of various kinds, including establishment of an Army Legal Assistance Program that pamphlets or “compendiums” on marriage in absentia, wills, continues to this day—is a history worth telling. and divorce.7 After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and While the workload varied from office to office, legal America’s entry into World War II, millions of young men assistance officers were busy; in the first year of the official either enlisted or were drafted into the Armed Forces. Many program, JAs handled a total of 298,825 cases. Of these, of these citizen-Soldiers quickly deployed overseas for an 35% were taxation issues; 21% concerned powers of extended period of time and, consequently, had little time to attorney; 20% dealt with wills; 5% involved domestic arrange their personal affairs. In 1940, Congress passed the relations; and the remaining 19% concerned affidavits, Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Civil Relief Act (SSCRA),1 which citizenship, estates, insurance, real and personal property, provided men and women in uniform with much needed and torts.8 By the end of World War II, Army legal legal protections. However, the Army soon realized that assistance officers had handled five and a half million Soldiers needed access to legal help in order to protect their cases—a tremendous amount considering the program had interests under the SSCRA and other laws. not started until March 1943. At first, Army lawyers worked with the American Bar After World War II, Army legal assistance continued as Association (ABA) to help Soldiers “resolve unsettled legal a permanent program, but in the 1950s and early 1960s it problems and unsatisfied legal needs” at the time of their was “little more than a referral program in which Army induction.2 Judge advocates (JAs) worked with state and lawyers provided general legal counseling, but referred most local bar associations to assist Soldiers with subsequent legal of the actual legal work, including wills and powers of problems by referring them to civilian lawyers in their local attorney, to civilian lawyers.”9 areas. This cooperative, and successful, arrangement continued until 16 March 1943, when the Army