Week 2 of the Army JAG School

In this post, I share my experience during the second week of the Army JAG School.

I just completed week two of JAG School. We are starting to settle into our new routine.

Things are a lot more predictable and feel more normal than they did during my time at DCC. It is a very routine academic environment.

Consequently, I don’t really have the same number of exciting things to write about as I did at Fort Benning. It is a lot easier to write about a day spent at land navigation or firing M-16s than it is about a day listening to lectures and powerpoint presentations, as entertaining as they may be.

Essentially, we have class every day from about 9:00 to 5:30 with an hour and a half for lunch. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, we have PT at 6:20 am. I, therefore, expect my posts to be briefer than my earlier writings.

JAG School Classes

Our current course of instruction is on military justice. This is a fascinating area of the law. It is, after all, the stuff of movies and television shows: investigations, courts-martial, etc. A Few Good Men and *NCIS *immediately come to mind.

(The television show *JAG *also comes to mind. That show, however, takes dramatic license to the extreme.)

Our other areas of instruction—such as administrative law and legal assistance—do not have the same level of excitement. I can’t envision a movie about Tom Cruise trying to determine from which pot of money the installation commander should pay for repairs to base housing.

This week was a bit unique because we got a snowstorm on Monday and therefore had the day off. (Above is a picture from my room’s balcony.)

Getting us here is not a big issue because all but three students live in the JAG school. We only have to go downstairs to get to class. We don’t have to go outside at all. (In fact, I went from Sunday night to Wednesday night without ever stepping outside.) The professors and graduate students, however, have to drive in. So, they had to close the school that day.

The rest of the week was business as usual. We are working through the military justice curriculum and will be for the next couple of weeks. There are a few writing assignments so far, but nothing overly strenuous. We also have an online quiz every evening, but, if you pay attention during class, they aren’t challenging, either.

Next Week

As stated above, we will spend the next week continuing to work through the military justice block. I will write future posts addressing the actual subjects we are discussing, but I did not think they would fit well in a blog post devoted to the actual experience of JAG school.

Next week, I will post again with some further details, so please check back if you are interested.

I provide a more expansive account of my experience at the Army JAG School in my book The JAG School Survival Guide: Succeeding at the Army’s Judge Advocate Officer Basic Course.

The views and opinions expressed in this post are the author’s own and do not reflect the official policy or position of the United States Army, the National Guard Bureau, the Arkansas National Guard, the Department of Defense, or the United States Government.