Harvard Law School - Yearbook (Cambridge, MA)

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THE JUDGE ADVOCATE GENERAL'S DEPARTMENT, UNITED STATES ARMY by COLONEL ARCHIBALD KING Judge Advocate General's Department, U. S. Army Harvard: A.B., 19033 A.M., 1904, LLB., 1906 HE judge Advocate General's Department is a staff department of the Army, as are the Quartermaster Corps, the Medical Department, the Finance Depart- ment, and others. At this time, it is composed of 113 ofhcers of the regular Army ranging in rank from The Judge Advocate General, who is a major general, down to captains. There are also 515 officers of the Judge Advocate General's Department in the Officers' Reserve Corps, of whom 205 are now on active duty. There are over 100 officers of the judge Advocate General's De- partment in the National Guard, all on active duty. All these ofhcers, regular, reserve, and National Guard, are lawyers. No soldiers are en- listed in or permanently assigned to the Judge Advocate General's Department, but soldiers of other branches of the service are often detailed to its offices as clerks, but soldiers of other branches of the service are often detailed to its offices as clerks, stenographers, and messengers. Vacancies in the Judge Advocate General's Department of the regular Army are Hlled by the transfer from other branches of regular officers who have had a legal ed- ucation before entering the Army, a source now pretty well exhaustedg by sending young officers of other branches of the regular Army to law school and afterwards transferring them to the judge Advocate General's Department, a method suspended during the present emergency, and by transfer to the regular Army of reserve officers of the judge Advocate General's Department between the ages of 50 and 36. To be eligible for an original appointment as captain fthe lowest gradeh in the judge Advocate General's Department of the Officers' Reserve Corps, an applicant must be a male citizen of the United States, between the ages of 28 and 37, who has been for at least four years either a practicing attorney in good standing, a teacher in a law 17

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bland, indulgent smile that there is no danger are also a menace - and probably a greater menace. I am conhdent that at least 90 per cent of the men who are, or have been, students in the Harvard Law School will size up rhe facts with common sense and shrewdnessg that they realize that disabling, crippling, hamstringing the nation would of course under- mine the security and prosperity of its membersg and that they will grimly and effectively do their parts to prevent such hamstringing. And General Grim will do it. To look ahead. A nation with no ideals will decline and fall. But man cannot live on ideals alone. There is need also of the realistic approach to the difliculr task of implementing the ideals. Itlealr inadequately hlendetl with realirm do much more harm than goorl. Let us look squarely in the face the fact that in the last thirty years we have shown more capacity for generating enthusiasm for ideals than for finding effective ways to realize them. We have scaled peaks of enthusiasm only to slip and plunge down into a slough of despond, - disillusioned and cynical. If we are to live and be happy about it we cannot afford to do that sort of thing indefinitely. When this emergency is over there ought to be a lot of common-sense, hardheaded, clear, simple, modest thinking. A child can grarp an irleal. Bat only wire men can implement it. Wisdom is the prin- cipal thingg therefore get wisdomg and with all thy getting get understanding. We must think out practical, workable ways and means for implementing the fundamental Amer- ican ideal of Live and let live to be applied to nations. But the immediate job is Cas I see itb the elementary job of self-preservation. EDWARD H. WARREN 16

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school, or the holder of a judicial or quasi-judicial ofhce. The minimum age is set at 28 because it is believed that younger men had best serve in the combatant arms. The military knowledge thereby acquired will be useful to them if they should later be com- missioned in the judge Advocate Genera1's Department. As there is now a considerable surplus in the judge Advocate General's Department of the Officers' Reserve Corps above anticipated needs, appointments thereto are suspended for the time being. The primary purpose of the judge Advocate General's Department is to furnish legal advice to the President on military matters and to the Secretary of War and the Commanding Generals on whose staffs the officers of the department serve. A secondary, but important, purpose is to furnish legal advice to anybody in the Army who needs such advice in the performance of his official duties. The question may be asked: - why have lawyers in the Army? The Army is a fighting organization, what necessity is there for lawyers as a part of it? - The answer is that an army, if it is to be an army and not a mob, must have discipline. In order to have discipline, punishments must be imposed for crimes and military offenses, and the imposition of punishment must be prompt, certain, uniform as between offenses of like degree, and neither too light nor too severe. If the court-martial system seriously fails in any of these respects, the discipline of the Army, and therefore its military efficiency, will be much diminished. When we turn to the internal administration of the Army and to its business dealings, as in the purchase of supplies and the construction of build- ings, it is evident that these complicated transactions must also be conducted in a legal manner with due regard for the rights of all concerned, or else the efficiency of the Army will seriously suffer. For all these reasons lawyers in the Army are necessary. The question may be considered more in detail. As all readers of this yearbook know, the existence of every organism of the federal government and every act of every such organism must ultimately be referred to and based upon some provision of the Constitution. Every member of the Convention that framed the Constitution had been a witness of and many of them had been participants in the Revolutionary War, and they were under no illusions that the government which they were establishing would enjoy perpetual peace. In the preamble they stated that one of the reasons for the adop- tion of the Constitution was to provide for the common defense, and they repeated that expression in Article I, Section 8, enumerating the powers of Congress. That sec- tion also authorizes Congress to declare war, to raise and support armies and to 18