Hello to all! I am 1LT (First Lieutenant) Earl Wilson, III. I am originally from New Orleans, La. (Geaux Saints!) and I am presently gearing up to leave my comfortable home and job in Houston, Texas in pursuit of the "road less traveled":THE UNITED STATES ARMY! Hooah! I was fortunate enough to receive a comission as an officer in The Judge Advocate General's Corps., so I figure I am about to get the best of both worlds: priceless experience in my professional discipline (MOS) and the gung ho challenge of being a member of the world's best fighting force. I enjoy private practice and I'd like to wish my partners well and thank them for their support of this unconventional endeavor...Oh and Im excited about my return guys.

Why the Army JAG Corps (Reserve Component)? As a former college football player (GO REDDIES!), I have been desparately missing the comradery of a team enviroment. There is nothing like the feeling you get when group cooperation and group effort comes together to create group success! Forgive me, because I know that sounded so cliche' but its true and honestly since my football days are long but not that long behind me I figured why not try to play for the ultimate team, the US ARMY. So thats when I started a fact finding process that eventually became an application process. This application process brought me in contact with two great officers whom I admire, CPT Ian Chin and LTC Hall. LTC Hall is the field screening officer who intereviewed me and CPT Chin is "the guy" who made my application process run as smooth as possible. I'd like to pause here and say that as you continue to read you'll see that in my short time in the Army (not even a month) I have been blessed to come in contact with great soldiers, NCO's and officers. Back to CPT Chin now, CPT Chin has definitely made an impact on me and my career during the short time that I have known him. I know there is no perfect anything, but I think CPT Chin is a good example of officership in the United States Army. Moving along, I got the great news of my acceptance into the JAGC in August and have been excited about it ever since.

In early November I took the initiative to attempt to prepare myself for Army PT (physical training) by seeking out a recruiting station and training with an NCO there. Enter SFC Castro. First off, I can not thank SFC Castro enough for working with me and helping me get where I need to be and although I am not there yet I can only imagine how unprepared I would be for 181st Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course (JAOBC). During my training with SFC Castro I have already began to build relationships that I hope last beyond my career (and with the distances the good SGT has us running I think the bond will be pretty well cemented. Hooah!). This past weekend I had my first Battle Assembly (BA) with the 1st Legal Support Organization's (LSO) Houston Team. I had a great time woking with my colleagues. My superior officers (LTC Fluke, CPT's Lindsey, Johnson, and Mendoza) were very cool yet professional. There isn't enough I can say about the enlisted and NCO's in our office so I'll just say they are great!! Big shout out to SGT's Maki, Caszco, Kohn, Brazelton, Maule and PFC Pena!! HOOAH! They taught me about "Hooah's" multi-faceted capabilities. (LOL) They also gave me an intro to "Land Nav" course, great job on making something so intimidating seem very doable.  So this is where I'm at right now ,on 11 Jan 2010: fresh out of my first BA and eagerly anticipating my report date of 7 Feb 2010 at Fort Lee, VA. It is my sincerest hopes that I can regularly update this blog so that I can keep all of my family, friends, colleagues and future soldiers how I am doing at JAOBC/DCC but as I attempt to travel through unchartered waters only time will tell. One last thing before I close, there are many reasons why I decided to participate in "amry strong stories," but the most compelling one is because during my "fact finding" stage a new JA in the 179th was telling her army strong story and I followed it and even emailed her with a question or two. To my suprise she responded and the advice she gave proved to be very useful. This soldier's name is 1LT J. Rachel Robinson. 1LT Robinson unkonwingly made my decision make process easier by chronicling her story and giving me and most likely others insight we couldnt find on goarmy.com so I figure the best way to repay 1LT Robinson is by "paying it forward" so Im about to give it the ol'college try....HOOOAH!