Capt. Ruth Anne Cresenzo and Chief Warrant Officer Don Mial shared their experiences with students during the session in the Tobee and Leonard Kaplan Classroom. JAG officers provide legal advice to commanders in a variety of situations, from soldier misconduct or misbehavior to battlefield rules of engagement. They also act as both prosecutors and defense attorneys in cases involving soldiers. They also provide legal assistance to soldiers and officers facing deployment, helping with wills, trusts and other legal documents.
“It’s the biggest law firm in the world,” said Cresenzo, who recently returned from a year-long deployment in Kuwait. JAG officers work part-time when they are not deployed, serving one weekend a month and for two weeks each summer. The arrangement allows JAG officers to continue their civilian law practice.
Mial was quick to tell students that the portrayal of JAG officers on television isn’t true in real life. “There aren’t any JAG officers flying fighter jets or things like that,” Mial said. While JAG officers go through an abbreviated form of basic training, learn basic battlefield techniques and are taught how to assemble and disassemble a weapon, they are not assigned to frontline battle duty. “But when I was in Iraq, I traveled everywhere,” Mial said. “You are a soldier first, so you have to know how to handle that weapon if something happens.”
Cresenzo said becoming a JAG officer was “the last thing on my mind” after graduating from law school at North Carolina Central University. “I’d have said you were crazy if you told me I would have two children, a husband and that I would have volunteered for a deployment to Kuwait. For me personally, it’s one of the best decisions I ever made. The JAG Corps gives you a chance to do so many different things.”