Pacific legal teams train to deploy

  • Published
  • By Tech. Sgt. Chris Vadnais
  • AFN Hawaii
POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii (AFNS) --  Two dozen experts in military law deployed to the desolate Pohakuloa Training Area (PTA) on the "Big Island" of Hawaii this week to sharpen their skills in preparation for upcoming deployments. 

The Pacific Air Forces' Pacific Joint Operations Legal Exercise, or PACJOLE, is an annual localized training event comparable to JAG FLAG, the Judge Advocate General's School's exercise held at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Just like they might in a real deployment, the teams faced nasty weather and a healthy uphill hike - carrying all their gear - upon arriving at the training area. PTA is a 100,000 acre training area covered with loose volcanic rock in the middle of the island, and is a perfect place to simulate deployments; it's quiet, seemingly deserted, and wide open. 

During the five-day exercise, each team of two - one lawyer and one paralegal - will sit through about 15 hours of classroom lesson-and-discussion sessions and run through 30 role-playing scenarios. Officials from the Headquarters PACAF Legal Office will observe and critique the students' responses to the scenarios. The goal is to get the students ready for upcoming deployments.
 
"Almost all these JAGs and paralegals are getting ready to deploy," said Lt. Col. Mark Pollard, PACAF's Chief of International Law. "If they can handle these situations here, in a fairly austere environment, it'll give them the confidence that when they deploy they can handle anything they face there," he said. 

The scenarios are loosely based on things that have actually happened in the Pacific theater. In one of them, a Senior Airman is held in custody for allegedly raping a local national. The legal teams must negotiate with the prosecutor and the jailor to get custody of the Airman in accordance with an international agreement, which they have copies of. 

That's not as easy as it sounds. 

Lt. Col. Pollard, playing the prosecutor, said, "I've heard about this agreement, but I've never seen it." 

Capt. Felix Sutanto, a lawyer with the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan, quickly presented the prosecutor with the document. 

"This is in English," the prosecutor said. "I don't read English." 

Master Sgt. Bryan Cawvey, a 13th Air Force paralegal and part of the PACJOLE cadre, said the students don't get any easy answers. But, he said, the answers don't really matter, anyway. Memorizing policies and regulations won't prepare the students for deployments; getting them into the habit of thinking quickly will. 

"Maybe they'll never get to meet with a local prosecutor and negotiate the release of somebody, but they may have to go out and negotiate a contract, and maybe they've never done that before," said Sergeant Cawvey. "So really, though they may not face these exact types of situations, this helps get them geared up for the unexpected and helps sharpen how they think on their feet." 

The cadre works to make the exercise as realistic and as valuable as possible, updating about 20 percent of the curriculum from year to year. Master Sgt. Jose Bautista, a paralegal with the Pacific Air Forces legal office and a member of the PACJOLE cadre, said most of those changes come from the field. 

"In the past, people who have deployed have come back to us to say, 'Thank you so much for giving this type of training in PACJOLE,' and they give us their experience - what they experienced in the deployed environment," he said.