Question Answered - McKenzie, read this!
March 30, 2010
I got a question in one of my recent posts and wanted to share the answer with everyone.
How physical is the Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course (JAOBC) class at TJAGLCS and the six-weeks at the Direct Commission Officer Course (DCC)). I have a chronic torn ACL, which has not been surgically repaired.
Also, how does the army determine your area of work (e.g. medical, administrative support, combat, legal and law enforcement, etc)? Do you rotate through each area?
McKenzie,
While I can't give you specific advice about your specific issue (every applicant undergoes a medical eval and issues like your are referred to the Surgeon General of the Army for determination of whether you would meet physical requirements and, if not, whether a waiver is appropriate), I can give you a little insight to the Officer Basic Course and how the JAG Corps makes assignments.
First, OBC and the Direct Commission Officer Course can both be pretty challenging. In particular, the OBC in recent years has gotten tougher. There is a daily requirement to do Physical Training (PT) and the intensity of PT will vary, based on the period of training you're in (and, of course, on the level of fitness you come with). PT will involve running, push-ups and sit-ups, other strength training, road marches (basically hiking with a heavy pack), and other Soldier-oriented training. Generally, if you can run and engage in other exercises, you'll be ok.
As far as assignments, the JAG Corps tries to assign all new Judge Advocates to each of our primary practice areas during their first 4-year tour. This usually means spending 6-12 months doing Legal Assistance, 6-12 months in Administrative Law, and 6-12 months doing Criminal Law. Any remaining service balance might be served in Operational Law or in one of the other three areas of practice. It's also possible that a new JA will be assigned to a Brigade Combat Team; this would put the JA in the position of handling most of these areas at the same time. And no matter what area of practice is your primary responsibility, you'll get significant operational law experience in practice during a deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. (My advice to all applicants is to expect to be deployed for one year within your first 4-year term of service; this isn't guaranteed to happen, but you really should be prepared for it from the outset.)
Hope this helps! As always, feel free to send more questions.
Bill
Mar 30, 2010 5:29 PM