Dual boltage: a sneak preview of the unit of action

Dual Boltage: A Sneak Preview of the Unit of Action

Captain Timothy P. Hayes, Jr. (1) Chief of Operational Law 1st Armored Division Baghdad, Iraq

Introduction

Every U.S. service member who has lived in Europe or deployed overseas knows how critically important it can be to have dual voltage appliances. Many Soldiers have experienced the sinking feeling of plugging in a prized possession only to see wisps of smoke emanate from the outlet and smell a burned-out motor. In much the same way, individual attorneys working in a deployed brigade operational law team (BOLT) have frequently found themselves inadequate and maladapted, which can lead to smoked, burned-out attorneys of little use to their commanders or the Army. The leadership of the Judge Advocate General's Corps has recognized this problem and has begun staffing units of action (UA) with two judge advocates (JA). Recently, albeit inadvertently, the 1st Armored Division (1AD) served as a test case for the dual JA concept during its extended deployment to Iraq.

Discussion

1AD Application of the Existing Doctrine

Field Manual (FM) 27-100 provides for a brigade JA, who is normally that brigade's trial counsel while in garrison, to serve as the BOLT chief. (2) The paralegal specialists assigned to the brigade support that JA. Current doctrine requires the staff judge advocate to task-organize assets based on the following major factors considered during mission analysis: "mission, enemy, terrain and weather, troops and support available, time available, civil considerations" (METT-TC). (3) Yet, because JA assets are limited, FM 27-100 contemplates a single attorney being assigned to each brigade. (4) Moreover, FM 27-100 states that a brigade JA may be required to support more than one brigade or additional organizations. (5) The JA is expected to contribute to several, if not all, of the battlefield operating systems while identifying and resolving legal issues across all legal functional areas and core legal disciplines. (6) In addition, deployed JAs frequently find themselves fulfilling unanticipated, non-traditional missions. (7) Accomplishing those myriad functions in an exercise or combat training center rotation is burdensome. Meeting that challenge as a JA for a brigade combat team (BCT) engaged in urban combat, however, is a Herculean task.

The size and composition of a "standard" brigade continues to--and will continue to--evolve. An example is the Second Armored Cavalry Regiment (2ACR), attached to the 1AD for Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). The 2ACR's mission was to eliminate opposition, maintain peace, and rebuild infrastructure in the northeastern neighborhoods of Baghdad, to include Sadr City, a cramped and impoverished sector of Baghdad. (8) For at least a portion of the deployment, the 2ACR had authority under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) (9) over six battalion-sized units comprised of as many as forty-six company-sized units with 4,400 Soldiers in theater. (10) Some of those units, both reserve and active-duty, were not attached to 2ACR until they arrived in theater; thus, they lacked habitual legal support relationships. The 2ACR was spread out over five forward operating bases (FOBs) throughout an area of operations with a local population numbering approximately three million people. (11) The mission for other 1AD units was equally challenging. The ground-owning maneuver units in 1AD averaged over 3,500 troops and were responsible for countless citizens. (12) Yet existing Army doctrine called for only one attorney to address millions of potential claimants, detainees, or investigation subjects and thousands of Soldiers requiring operational law training, UCMJ administration, and legal assistance. (13)

To address this anticipated need, the 1AD Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA) deployed with enough JAs to supply each organic maneuver BCT with two JAs--the 1AD OSJA deployed with not only the attorneys on the tables of organization and equipment but also more than a dozen attorneys on the tables of distribution and allowance. (14) This was only possible because reservists called to active duty supported the rear detachment and communities. In hindsight, it would have been impossible to effectively support each BCT with only one JA and provide the comprehensive legal support required by the mission. (15) The reasons are as varied as the missions each BOLT routinely performed, missions that JAs in future operations will almost certainly be required to execute.

OIF: The Dual Attorney Concept in Action

As with most contemporary operations and training exercises, the OIF mission continued twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Unlike most recent deployments, however, that pace continued for deployed Soldiers more than a year. Providing twenty-four hour coverage for a thirty-day exercise is manageable; doing the same for six months on a deployment is difficult; continuing at that pace for 365 days and beyond is mentally and physically impossible without adequate support. While six-month personnel rotation plans are an appealing practical solution at first glance, the unpredictability and variety of contemporary operations necessitates deployment with a robust legal support package. Such a package will readily outstrip the ability of most offices to support six-month rotations.