The Military Defender is often asked a thorny question, by JAG's, prospective clients, and other participants in the military legal and regulatory systems. We're asked how we, as retired career military officers, square our frequently challenging posture (some have called it "meddling" or worse) towards the military establishment with our own formative experiences of command and discipline during our careers? Some have even wondered how we can continue to accept our retirement pay (it's not really a pension, folks). Well, to be honest, we sometimes reflect on the same question. After all, we are frequently consulted and often retained by people who are, in fact, trying to challenge such icons as established authority, the Chain of Command, senior- level probity, "We take care of our own", the military meritocracy, and so on. More often than not, the challenge is for their personal benefit, rather than for some obviously overarching principle. That is, unless one agrees that, except in a few very well-defined situations (such as combat), the personal (individual) good is the very basis of the communal good - that is, after all, a founding principle of the nation we all have served. By way of giving a human face to what a defense lawyer is and does, whether in the military or the civilian worlds, we want to share these very illuminating comments, extracted with thanks from a recent issue of The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers journal, "The Champion"
We take a case and become focused on the issues. We build confidence in our ability to prepare and then deliver a persuasive case. We push ourselves and the people around us to set the case in its best posture, making sure that every issue has been covered, every possibility considered, and every contingency accounted for. We are also driven to perform at a level the people around us come to expect. We do not rest.
We represent people. They bleed, feel, and cry. They are whom we are about. In the criminal trial lawyer, the client places his trust and faith that you will perform for him and him alone against the whole damn world if necessary. This is a sacred trust. You are his lawyer -- his champion.
Remember that no one can create your honor and integrity except you, and no one can destroy it but you.
If at any time in your life you start wondering if what you put yourself through, what you do, or what you stand for makes a difference.remember the following proclamation:
Legal Bulletin:
Articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124, and 153 of the Constitution are invalid until further notice. Restrictions on the freedom of the individual, the right to free speech, including freedom of the press and the right of assembly and to form groups, infringement on the secrecy of mail, telegraph and telephone combinations, house searches, confiscation and limitations in property ownership are now permissible.
That proclamation was on the wall of the reception center at the Dachau Concentration Camp on the outskirts of Munich, Germany. The proclamation was signed in Berlin by President Von Hindenburg and Chancellor Adolf Hitler on February 28, 1933.
mcj 10/4/2000