JAGWAR Board of Advisors

In developing its mission, structure, and activities, the Order of the JAGWAR has relied heavily on the insight of those who came before us, both in the Judge Advocate’s General Corps and in the broader United States Army.  We depend on our Advisors’ guidance to stay on the proper azimuth; we’re grateful for their many contributions.

hon. Patrick j. murphy

The Honorable Patrick J. Murphy was America’s first Iraq War veteran elected to the U.S. Congress, at which time he became the nation’s youngest Democratic Congressman. While in office, he authored such legislation as the 21st Century GI Bill and the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. 

HON Murphy later served as the Acting Secretary of the Army and 32nd Under Secretary of the Army.  

Joining the Army at 19, Murphy graduated from the Airborne and Air Assault courses and later served in the Army JAG Corps as a criminal prosecutor and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York. Following 9/11, he served in two overseas combat deployments, to include a 2003 deployment to Iraq as a paratrooper with the 82nd Airborne Division, where he led a Brigade Operational Law Team (BOLT), earning a Bronze Star for his service.

Murphy currently serves as the Distinguished Chair of Innovation at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, on the national U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission, and additionally as a Senior Fellow for the Association of the United States Army.  He is the founder of PJM Entertainment, and Executive Chairman / Co-Founder of WorkMerk, an employee engagement company bridging the principles of psychology and technology to enable the future of work. 

Among other assignments, Dunn also served in the U S. Army Special Operations Command, as both SJA and Deputy SJA at the 82d Airborne Division, as Deputy SJA at the 25th Infantry Division, and the SJA for the Joint Readiness Training Center and Fort Polk.

Dunn is a graduate of Randolph-Macon College (1978) and of the Washington and Lee University School of Law (1981). She earned an L.L.M. in Military Law from The Judge Advocate General’s School and a Masters in National Security Studies from the National War College. She directly commissioned into the Army JAG Corps in July 1981. Her awards and decorations include the Distinguished Service Medal, the Bronze Star, the Legion of Merit, and Meritorious Service Medal. She is a graduate of the Army’s Airborne and Jumpmaster Schools.

Dunn is a past president of the Judge Advocates Association and current Executive Director of the American Inns of Court Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia.

Following his retirement from the military, Gross served as a partner at a DC-area law firm and later as the in-house general counsel for a government contractor. He serves on three nonprofit boards: the Independence Fund; Military Community Youth Ministries; and the Spookstock Foundation.  He is a Distinguished Fellow at the University of Virginia Law School’s Center for National Security Law, a Senior Fellow at Columbia Law School, and a Lieber Institute Associate at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Gross’s military decorations include the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit, and the Bronze Star. While on active duty, he earned the Ranger Tab, the Master Parachutist Badge, the Air Assault Badge, and the Expert Infantryman Badge. He is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point (1985), the University of Virginia School of Law (1993), the United States Army War College (2009).

His many assignments include service with III Corps and Fort Hood; XVIII Airborne Corps and Fort Bragg; the 82nd Airborne Division; U.S. Forces Korea; 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 1st Theater Sustainment Command; and the 25th Infantry Division.

The consummate mentor, Thompson also served as the Basic NCO Small Group Leader at Advanced Individual Training, and as a Drill Sergeant at Fort Jackson.  He has participated in numerous combat and humanitarian operations, to include Operation Uphold Democracy, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation Enduring Freedom.  Thompson earned a Bachelor of Arts in Criminal Justice from Hawaii Pacific University and a Master of Science in Criminal Justice from Troy University.  His awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, seven Meritorious Service Medals, three Army Commendation Medals, and seven Army Achievement Medals.  He earned both the Master Parachutist Badge and Drill Sergeant Identification Badge.  Thompson is a graduate of the Army’s Jumpmaster, Airborne, and Air Assault Schools.

Jaster graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2000 and deployed to both Afghanistan (2002) and Iraq (2003) in the initial phases of the War of Terror.  After having two children and establishing herself in the energy industry, Jaster joined the Army Reserves (Engineer Branch) in 2012.  She again deployed to Iraq in 2018 with the Army Corps of Engineers to lead a six-person engineering and design team to support military and contract construction. 

An account of MAJ Jaster’s address to students at the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School is available in the News section of the JAGWAR website.

HON THomAS J. Rooney

The Honorable Tom Rooney is a five-term Florida congressman (2008-18) who served on the House Appropriations Committee’s subcommittees on Agriculture, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and State and Foreign Operations.

He was also a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and served as chairman of both the Intelligence Subcommittee on Emerging Threats and the Intelligence Subcommittee on the NSA and Cybersecurity.  

Prior to being elected to Congress, Rooney worked as an assistant attorney general before becoming CEO of The Children’s Place at Home Safe, a home for abused and neglected children.  Rooney was later appointed by former Governor Jeb Bush to the Children’s Services Council of Palm Beach County Board of Directors.

Rooney received his B.A. from Washington and Jefferson College, his M.A. from the University of Florida, and his J.D. from the University of Miami School of Law.  He served in the U.S. Army JAG Corps as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney at Fort Hood, Texas, and taught constitutional and criminal law at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  He was recently appointed as a senior fellow for The LeMieux Center for Public Policy at Palm Beach Atlantic University.

Walsh retired from the Army in 1998 following a 25-year career, serving first as an Infantry officer upon completion of Airborne, Ranger, and Military Free Fall training, and then as an Army Judge Advocate.  He was assigned to the 82d Airborne, 1st Infantry, and 4th Infantry Divisions, and also spent considerable time in the Special Operations community, serving as the legal advisor to the Army’s 1st Special Forces Group, 1st Special Operations Detachment-DELTA, and U.S. Army Special Operations Command.

Walsh served as a professor on the faculty of the Judge Advocate General’s School from 1988-91, where he taught international and operational law to military and civilian attorneys and to senior commanders. From 1998-2003, Mr. Walsh was the Director of the CEO Forum, in Colorado Springs, where he provided advice and assistance on ethical leadership to more than 100 Corporate Executive Officers of major corporations.

MAJ (Ret) Robert P. Mcgovern

Major Rob McGovern (U.S. Army, Retired) is a published author and retired Judge Advocate who has spent his professional legal career serving primarily as a military and civilian criminal prosecutor.

McGovern was drafted by the Kansas City Chiefs and played four seasons in the National Football League from 1989 to 1992 with the Chiefs, Pittsburgh Steelers, and New England Patriots.

After graduating from Fordham University School of Law in 1996, he joined the New York City Manhattan District Attorney’s Office as a narcotics prosecutor. McGovern was in lower Manhattan on September 11, 2001 and, as an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve, served in the rescue and recovery operations that followed at Ground Zero. He subsequently volunteered for active duty as an Army Judge Advocate and deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 and 2003 as an Operational Law Attorney with the XVIII Airborne Corps. McGovern also deployed to Iraq in 2005 with Multi-National Corps – Iraq and Task Force 134 where he prosecuted captured Iraqi insurgents and foreign terrorists.

Throughout his 20-year Army JAG Corps career, McGovern prosecuted numerous military courts-martial cases to include several complex death penalty prosecutions. After leaving active duty, he served for six years as a federal prosecutor for the U.S. Department of Justice and now serves as the Division Counsel for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Special Operations Division.

Craver currently serves as the Clerk of Court for the Second Judicial Circuit and has worked with more than 50 judges and hundreds of counsel, court reporters, and paralegals over the course of the last two decades. She holds the highest national certification existing for court reporters and is certified in speeds up to 300 words per minute as a Certified Verbatim Reporter-Certificate of Merit-Master through the National Verbatim Reporters Association.  She earned an Associate of Arts in Realtime Court Reporting in 2010.

Since running her first half-marathon in 2014—and in accordance with a goal she and her husband set to run at least a half marathon in every state—Craver has run three full marathons and completed races in 13 states. 

COL Ryan B. Dowdy

Colonel Ryan Dowdy received a B.A. in Economics from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) in 1996, a J.D. from the Norman Adrian Wiggins School of Law (Campbell University) in 1999, and an LL.M. in Military Law from TJAGLCS in 2008.  He is also a graduate of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, the U.S. Army War College, and of the Army’s Airborne and Jumpmaster Schools.  A member of the North Carolina Bar, Colonel Dowdy’s awards and decorations include the Legion of Merit, the Bronze Star, and Army Meritorious Service Medal, the Combat Action Badge, the Senior Parachutist Badge, and German Armed Forces Efficiency Badge.

ltc (Ret) Amy J. Luyster

After graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1996, Lieutenant Colonel Amy Jo Luyster (U.S. Army, Retired) commissioned as a military intelligence officer with the 1st Infantry Division before being accepted into the Army’s Funded Legal Education Program.  After a deployment to Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary with the 1st Infantry Division Artillery, she attended law school at the University of Oklahoma. 

Luyster’s first assignment as a Judge Advocate was at Fort Hood in 2003, where she served as an environmental law attorney, general administrative law attorney, military magistrate, and ethics counselor for III Corps.  Later assignments included Chief of Military Justice, Chief of Administrative Law, Special Assistant United States Attorney for seven federal installations in the Northern District of California, action officer for the Administrative Law Division for the Office of The Judge Advocate General, Deputy Staff Judge Advocate for U.S. Army Cadet Command and Fort Knox, and Chief of Land Operations for NORTHCOM and NORAD. 

Luyster deployed with U.S. Forces-Afghanistan in 2012, for which she received the Bronze Star.  She is a graduate of the U.S. Army Airborne School and received an LL.M. (specializing in Administrative Law) from TJAGLCS in 2009.  She was also commissioned as a “Kentucky Colonel” by the Governor of Kentucky while stationed at Fort Knox, in recognition of her accomplishments and outstanding service to the state. Luyster’s final active duty assignment was as an Assistant to the United States Army’s General Counsel in the Operations and Personnel Practice Group.  She was awarded the Legion of Merit upon her retirement in 2019.

LTC Philip M. Staten

Lieutenant Colonel Philip Staten received a B.A. with Honors from Occidental College, a J.D. from Pace University School of Law, and an LL.M. in Military Law from The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School (TJAGLCS).  His military education includes the Army Command and General Staff College, the Judge Advocate Officer Graduate Course, the Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course, and the Basic Officer Leadership Course.

His awards include the Bronze Star Medal, the Purple Heart Medal, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Meritorious Service Medal, the Joint Service Commendation Medal, the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Achievement Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Iraq Campaign Medal with four Service Stars, the Global War On Terror Expeditionary Medal, and the Global War On Terror Service Medal.  He is also entitled to wear the Combat Action Badge, the Air Assault Badge, and the German Armed Forces Proficiency Badge (Silver).

ADMIN NOTE:
Photographs depicting retired JAGWAR Advisors in their Army Service Uniform on this website comply with the prohibition against using one’s public office for private gain—as codified in 5 C.F.R. § 2635.702—as retirees are not DoD employees.