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Today is Military Spouse Appreciation Day! As we prepare to give a special thanks to mothers across the nation, take a moment to thank the spouse of a service member -- particularly if s/he's your spouse!!
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Despite my brief joustingwith former SECDEF Donald Rumsfeld at the Military Blogger Conference on Saturday, the Q&A he did with us was really pretty interesting. (The full video is available at http://vimeo.com/23132551.) My first big take-away was that he's a pretty charming guy. You might complain that he comes off as too-flippant, or not serious enough to be a senior strategic advisor to the president, but I suspect his public persona (like most of us) isn't an...read more
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This weekend, I was able to make it to the 6th Annual Military Blogger Conference in Washington, D.C. Like the BlogWorld New Media Expo I attended in October, this was a chance for new/social media folks to get together, talk about the issues that drive us, see what's going on in the world of social media, and (of course) do some networking/hanging-out. This being my first time at MilBlogCon, I didn't know what to expect. It turned out to be a great, interesting, emotional experience....read more
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On FridayI think our joint doctrine instructor reached his breaking point with us and, in desperation, made a play that we all appreciated – Star Wars! And, no this was not a reference to Ronald Reagan's favorite military project, but rather that classic of classic sci-fi movies. I can honestly say I would have never imagined being so interested in “operational design.” Let me prove I learned something... This week we covered “operational...read more
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I returned from MilBlogCon today expecting I would just add a few notes to this blog, recapping a few things from ILE last week and start adding some notes from the weekend. Tonight, though is a much bigger night than that -- I just watched the President's address to the nation, announcing the death of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. There is no denying that this is an emotional point in this long war on terror. This nation has worked a long time, and our Soldiers have made...read more
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Yesterday we finally got our Tier II training about the repeal of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. I've been wating for this for a while and have been anxious to keep our DADT conversation going. First, to be clear, the repeal has not been implemented and repeal will not become effective until 60 days after the President/SECDEF/CJCS certifies that the military is ready to do so. So, right now, we're all being taught what is expected to...read more
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Two weeks ago we talked about direct vs. organizational leadership and I shared my thoughts on where (actually, whether) there was a dividing line between the two. Today I need to recap the last two leadership classes, and I'm happy to report that this week's leadership class was (thankfully!) a much better experience than the last few times. (Spoiler alert: I'm not going to give you an "instant guide to ethical leadership;" but stick around anyway ...)...read more
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Unlike many of my peers at ILE, I haven't been able to fully shake the responsibilities of my 'day job' as a criminal defense attorney. The attorney-client relationship that is formed between a TDS attorney and our Soldier-clients is just as real as for our civilian counterparts. That means that when one of my guys has a court-martial scheduled, I fly across the country to be there for him. One of the ways I can make this work is thanks to the outstanding support from my paralegals. Truly,...read more
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Direct vs. Organizational Leadership - Is there really a difference?
April 4, 2011
By: Major Benjamin Grimes
Our ongoing discussion of leadership continued on Friday with a look at sources of power and mechanisms of influence. These are interesting (if academic) topics, but the real of our work is on the application of leadership theory. The bottom line is, if we're not doing right by our subordinates and working toward mission success, we're just not doing our jobs. And as we transition away from "direct" leadership roles into those requiring...read more
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Part of growing up as a leader is evaluating where you're at - how you're performing - to determine what you need to work on in order to improve. It's pretty easy to look in the mirror and think about what your strengths and weaknesses are, but I'm beginning to realize exactly how valuable it can be to get someone else's perspective. In fact, the more opinions you can tap, the better. The Army has a system that allows for providing anonymous evaluation...read more
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Profile
Benjamin Grimes
| Affiliation: | Active Duty |
|---|---|
| Rank: | Major |
| Branch: | Judge Advocate General |
| MOS/AOC: | JAG Corps Attorney/27A |
| Location: | Tacoma, WA |
| Hometown: | York |
About Me:
MAJ Grimes has been in the Army since graduating from the United States Military Academy (West Point) in 1996, spending his first 4 years in service as a Blackhawk helicopter pilot before being selected to attend law school under the Funded Legal Education Program.
Since graduating from New York University School of Law, MAJ Grimes has served as an Administrative Law Attorney, Trial Counsel (Prosecutor) and Senior Trial Counsel, Brigade Legal Adviser, Trial Defense Counsel, and Judge Advocate Recruiting Officer. After earning his LL.M. from the Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School, he was assigned as the Senior Defense Counsel for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state.
His previous assignments include Fort Rucker (Alabama), South Korea, Fort Campbell (Kentucky), Germany, Fort Myer (Virginia) and Washington, D.C., and deployment to Iraq as the Senior Trial Counsel for Multi-National Corps -- Iraq. MAJ Grimes is married and has two children.
Since graduating from New York University School of Law, MAJ Grimes has served as an Administrative Law Attorney, Trial Counsel (Prosecutor) and Senior Trial Counsel, Brigade Legal Adviser, Trial Defense Counsel, and Judge Advocate Recruiting Officer. After earning his LL.M. from the Judge Advocate General's Legal Center & School, he was assigned as the Senior Defense Counsel for Joint Base Lewis-McChord, in Washington state.
His previous assignments include Fort Rucker (Alabama), South Korea, Fort Campbell (Kentucky), Germany, Fort Myer (Virginia) and Washington, D.C., and deployment to Iraq as the Senior Trial Counsel for Multi-National Corps -- Iraq. MAJ Grimes is married and has two children.
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