20 April 2011

            Things started bright and early today with the final ruck march of the C-Ville phase.  We stepped off at around 0445 on a 6-mile road march, which took us through a large chunk of campus.  We went along the air assault ruck march, which went out from TJAGLCS and wrapped around UVA’s John Paul Jones Arena, before extending out past their football stadium.  We pushed the pace faster than we had before, and by the end I had a renewed respect for the air assault folks (shocking, I know), given that they essentially ran that same hilly route…twice.

(Every air assault compliment must be book-ended by an insult.  Here you see the actual air assault ruck march route.)

            Class began with our final section of instruction: operational and international law.  This is the subject that a lot of the class was looking forward to, and was appropriately placed after fiscal law and legal assistance.  The block covers everything from foundational aspects of the law of war all the way up to targeting analysis and rules of engagement-a fairly wide swath.

            We began with foundational classes on the history of the law of war, which was followed by a two-hour block on the framework for the law of war.  These courses introduced us to critical terms and sources of law that underpin the entire body of the law of war, such as the Geneva Conventions, and Common Article II and III conflicts. 

(Who knew that Captain Kirk authored a required reading for law of war students?)

If you’re under the assumption that op law is all about high-octane things, you’re getting a little ahead of yourself.  Between those three hours, and an hour on the legal basis for the use of force, the message we took home today was that the basics are just as or more important than any of the “sexier” areas of this area.

         The op law block follows a pattern of instruction we’ve had before.  You’ll spend the mornings in classes, and then take part in two-hour seminars in the afternoon, where you’ll apply the lessons to various factual situations.  I won’t go into the details of any of these scenarios, since they may change, and revealing them ahead of time would defeat the purpose of the exercise.  Suffice it to say that they’re just as effective as the seminars from other areas, and I’ve grown to appreciate the chance to cement what was taught to us in the am, rather than just rolling through more material.