The Army Times is out with an interesting article, and—derivatively—it highlights the imperative that Army judge advocates and paralegals embrace the “Soldier First, Lawyer Always” ethos of our Corps.
The report details a “line of effort underway to find soldiers well-tuned to the Arctic environment”, wherein the Army Recruiting Command is seeking to “recruit soldiers who grew up in cold weather environments to serve in Army Alaska units,” leveraging the backgrounds and aptitudes of those already “accustomed to the cold and its deleterious effects on batteries, energy consumption and the human body”.
This is a fascinating turn of events, given the past 20-year transformation to a standardized, interoperable “Brigade Combat Team” oriented Army. Because of the military’s relentless focus on the Middle East (to the near exclusion of all other AOs), Army equipment and training is “very similar across the force and we no longer had niche capabilities to operate in very unique environments.”
That’s changing. With the inevitable end of America’s wartime engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan (no, like, for really real this time, guys, for real), the Army is pivoting to renew relationships with strategic allies in environments not exclusively defined by mountains, sand, and mountains of sand. It’s a big world out there; conflicts with the “near-peer” adversaries openly competing for strategic dominance will not be exclusively confined to CENTCOM.
In the years to come, U.S. tactical competence in cold weather climates will be critical to both deterring aggression at the poles, and to decisively responding should it occur. And that, at long last, brings me to the BLUF.
Army lawyers and paralegals may not always have the luxury of heated TOCs safely removed from the battlefield, and subzero temperatures aren’t something you should let sneak up on you. As the Germans (and French before them) will attest, there ain’t no enemy like Winter. It’s therefore incumbent on all of us to remember that overcoming the physical hardships posed by “the cold” is the very first step to ensuring that we can apply the intellect and legal reasoning for which we’re known.
We’re dual professionals, and all JAG Corps members should be prepared to cultivate their cold-weather capabilities if called upon to contribute to an arctic mission. Mental toughness, physical resolve… these are the base ingredients of the Army legal professional… ready to advise, advocate, and answer at any time, in any climate, anywhere.