"JAG stands for, uh, Judge Advocate General's Corps, and the purpose of the, uh, JAG Corps is to, uh, uh, take care of the legal needs of the uniformed, uh, people in the Navy." "That's uh, take care of, uh, advising Commanders or take care of dealing with legal issues that come up in a variety of areas criminal or administrative or environmental or a number of different areas, for the Navy." "The Army and the Marine Corps and the Air Force all have JAGs." "And they provide similar services." "I mean, we're all unique in some way because our mission is unique." "I mean, the Navy's mission is unique compared to the others." "But all the lawyers and the JAGS in uniform perform the same services." "I joined the Navy in '97." "When I came in," "I was really just a wild teenager." "Um, didn't really know what I was gonna do with my life." "And so I just decided, "Maybe I should join the military. "" "So I went into the recruiting office and-and talked to a recruiter and decided maybe the military would be a good step for me." "I did five years as a service Warfare Officer and I, uh..." "When I was..." "Uh, coming to the end of my five years" "I" " I-I got into the Law Education Program with the Navy and went to law school and after that came back into the JAG Corps." "I was in law school, and a group of us, we were in our second year of law school and, uh, we went to see an Air Force recruiter." "The thought being that the military offered the opportunity to start trying cases, be in a court room, the minute you came into the military which is unusual in the civilian field." "You have to pay your dues and it's a good three to five years before you're actually trying a case." "Well, we, uh, all wanted to be litigators so we thought, go into the military, do our time, get our experience at litigators and then go out and decide whatever it is we wanted to do." "I've always wanted to be an attorney, per se, but a paralegal supporting the attorney, um, helping justice to be served and-and helping the attorney to get where they need to be." "So, I thought that the Legalman way would be a good step for me to make and decided I would convert over to Legalman." "I went to sea during my first tour." "So, um, after being in the first year" "I raised my hand and said, "I want to go to sea. "" "And when I did, I mean, everything just changed" "I knew I was gonna stay in for a career, uh, once I did that." "Well, working as a-a JAG on a ship was very rewarding." "I was, uh, on the carrier and I was the only lawyer, only JAG on the carrier and so I took care of the 5,000 sailors, anybody that had any problems." "So I was part of the ship's company." "So, any legal issues that came up, they all talked to me." "Any-Any problems that the Captain had, uh, any issues that he wanted to discuss or needed advice about, that would be me." "And I enjoyed taking care of needs and supporting the mission of the ship by giving legal advice and helping the sailors." "JAG at sea, responsibility?" "For the most part we're general practitioners, which means you need to be able to identify issues and be able to answer questions for a whole range of legal issues." "Operational law, international law, your rules of engagement, your law of armed conflict, your military justice, um, which deals with good order and discipline, ethics, admiralty law, maritime law, administrative law, investigations." "Yes, sir." "We were told to report to the Cayuga to observe a joint exercise being conducted under the International Laws of the Sea." "It is a range of issues and the JAG won't be an expert in every one of those areas of law, obviously, but needs to know, um, all those areas of law and be able to know who to go, what to do," "issue spot and-and answer the leadership's questions." "Part of my duties on-on the carrier was if there issues of international law, maritime law that would come up, as they did, while we were in the Persian Gulf, uh, the Captain would say, "Let's talk about this," ""tell me what I need to know, help me, uh..." ""Guide me through my decision making process," ""so that I can make good decisions. "" "So that he, the Captain, could make a good decision." "Good order and discipline has been something that has been..." "Uh, as long as we've had Navy ships and Navy crews, it's always been a concern." "What happened was during the Civil War, there started to be a recognition that we needed some type of law specialists involved that can handle these types of good order and discipline cases." "And those were traditionally line officers." "That eventually evolved into the requirement that," ""Hey, maybe we should be having lawyers involved in this. "" "And, in fact, that didn't happen until about the 1950's." "And then as that evolved into having all lawyers handling this type of, uh, good order and discipline in military justice there was a recognition, "Well, we should group those" ""specialists together into one Corps. "" "And they in fact, officially grouped us together as Staff Corps in 1967." "Following in his father's footsteps as a naval aviator," "Lieutenant Commander Harmon Rabb, Junior, suffered a crash while landing his Tomcat on a storm-tossed carrier at sea." "The show just brings out one aspect of what JAGS do and, for obvious reasons it's the sexy part of our practice and that is as our roles as prosecutors and defenders practicing in a court room or practicing on board a ship." "...how could you identify slugs this badly deformed as coming from Chief Connors' weapon?" "It has a very, uh, strong appeal." "It's the reasons, the reason why I came in originally." "It's what people traditionally think of when they think of a lawyer." "And that's what this show brings out." "But, yeah." "We do a lot more." "We do a lot more." "Objection, not relevant." "Overruled." "It's real in a sense." "The court room is real." "Some of the-the instances where someone may have committed a crime is very real." "If-If you're a trial counsel or a defense counsel you're representing the accused and you're representing the government." "Objection." "Calls for speculation." "Sustained." "I'd say parts of it are very accurate and parts of it, of course, uh, make the show exciting and are a little bit inaccurate." "Some of the investigations are-are not always done by JAGS but I've done some pretty interesting stuff." "I've gotten to go places and go overseas and-and talk to people and do some very interesting things." "So, while it's not exactly the same, parts of it are very accurate." "And also, I'd say that in the real JAG Corps, uh, the emphasis is on the Line Commanders and taking care of the Admirals and the decision makers and a lot of our focus is not on ourselves," "but on focusing on making sure the fleet has the information they need, making sure the fleet's ready to go, making sure the sailors are taken care of, as opposed to always focused on us as any television show would have to be," "focused on the stars and the people that are in the show." "I mean, I don't know if I could contribute it directly to the show but I will tell you I'm sure that it has helped." "The competition and the number of applicants that try to get into the JAG Corps every year is unbelievable." "They are literally picking the best of the best now to come into the JAG Corps because we have so many applicants." "And I think it did heighten everyone's awareness of what we were doing and that there was an appeal to it." "I came into the JAG Corps not ever really having seen the show, it really didn't have any impact on me." "However, the impact I have had is-is I..." "In the community people know what I do, they respect what I do, they are interested in what I do and it's had a tremendous positive impact on the JAG Corps and I think the Navy in general." "Is it exactly the way it is in the show, you know?" "And I would tell you that I'm not gonna get into my F-14 and soar off an aircraft carrier because, no, I don't do that." "And I don't go running through the jungle to find a bad guy." "But I will tell you that being in the JAG Corps is-is every ounce as exciting as your show portrays it to be." "And that's why I stay." "The excitement of being able to help an attorney get a witness here for trial and know that the trial is gonna go smooth and justice is gonna be served is-is very exciting." "Every couple of years you change jobs and get to do something different, learn something new." "Very interesting, very exciting." "And it's - it's a big team." "We work together to support the Navy to make sure that the Navy's able to do the things that they need to do."