Give Navy Lawyers Sea Duty, Too

As I read the review of the “Admiral’s Advantage” in the May issue of Seapower, one fact stood out among the many well-deserved kudos being given to the intelligence community, namely “… much credit for the successful integration of the intelligence … lay in the requirement that intelligence officers and enlisted personnel be slated for sea duty early in their careers.”

The review goes on to detail the many advantages that serving at sea gave to these intel personnel to better serve their operational commanders. I long ago advocated (and still do) this same type of awareness be provided to staff officers in operational units, specifically, the Navy Judge Advocate Corps.

All the other services require their JAGs to be ready to perform the same duties as their operational, non-staff colleagues. The overwhelming majority of Navy JAGs go into the Navy without ever having been to sea. These lawyer-officers have little appreciation (if any) for the impact upon the crew and the ship’s mission of a sailor being [on unauthorized absence] or missing movement.

Vincent S. Averna
USN (Ret.)
McLean, VA

I read with interest the “requirement that intelligence officers and enlisted personnel be slated for sea duty early in their careers,” so that “intelligence analysts gained a firm grasp of the types of information that were useful for the decision makers” (May Historical Perspective). As a lawyer in civilian life and a line officer as a reservist, I think it would be equally useful if all Navy lawyers were required to spend some serious time aboard ship or assigned to Marine Corps units, so that they would have a clearer understanding of what the difference is between civilian and military experience.

Paul William Garber
USNR (Ret.)

Cold War Déjà Vu

Reading David Winkler’s Historical Perspective (May issue) was like reading over my enlisted evaluations from my active-duty days. As a young Cryptologic Technician working in the intelligence and cryptologic communities during the final years of the Cold War, the duty rotation was exactly how Mr. Winkler described it.

Before shore duty, I completed my first two tours at sea on two different aircraft carriers from early 1982 to late 1987. It seemed we were constantly in the company of Soviet units. Sometimes they were visible. Most of the time they were not. But we knew they were there.

The strangest, most memorable incident of that duty rotation, for me, came during my subsequent shore duty. Ironically, the event took place at the Naval War College in 1989 where I was assigned to the staff. Those same Russian “enemies” whom I had frequently encountered at sea were now being escorted on tours through our facilities and had suddenly become our emerging allies.

Daniel Force
USN (Ret.)
Portsmouth, RI