WThe Air Force Legal Operations Agency (AFLOA) includes all senior defense counsel, senior trial counsel, and appellate defense and government counsel in the Air Force, as well as all Air Force civil litigators defending the Air Force against civil law suits claiming damages and seeking other remedies in contracts, environmental, labor, and tort litigation. The agency includes numerous field support centers to include Tort Claim, Environmental Law, Labor Law, Commercial Litigation, Contract Law, Medical Law, and Accident Investigation Board. It also includes the utility litigation team, the Medical Cost Reimbursement program, and the Air Force Claims Service Center. The agency also includes the Judge Advocate General's school and the Information Systems Directorate. This provides information technology services to worldwide Air Force legal offices and provides federal legal information technology through Federal Legal Information Technology and electronics services to legal offices throughout the Department of Defense. AFLOA has offices worldwide at more than 76 locations and consists of 426 military and civilian attorneys and 405 military and civilian paralegals and support personnel.
WOn May 11, 2009, five United States military personnel were fatally shot at a military counseling clinic at Camp Liberty, Iraq by Army Sergeant John M. Russell. In the days before the killings, witnesses stated Russell had become distant and was having suicidal thoughts.
WA declaration of war is a formal declaration issued by a national government indicating that a state of war exists between that nation and another. The document Declarations of War and Authorizations for the Use of Military Force: Historical Background and Legal Implications gives an extensive listing and summary of statutes which are automatically engaged upon the United States declaring war.
WThe Trump trans soldier exclusion took effect with the Directive-type Memorandum-19-004 signed by David L. Norquist of the United States Department of Defense. The DTM banned most transgender individuals from serving or enlisting in the United States Armed Forces and applied to all organizational entities in the United States Department of Defense and the United States Coast Guard.
W"Don't ask, don't tell" (DADT) was the official United States policy on military service by gay men, bisexuals, and lesbians, instituted by the Clinton Administration. The policy was issued under Department of Defense Directive 1304.26 on December 21, 1993 and was in effect from February 28, 1994 until September 20, 2011. The policy prohibited military personnel from discriminating against or harassing closeted homosexual or bisexual service members or applicants, while barring openly gay, lesbian, or bisexual persons from military service. This relaxation of legal restrictions on service by gays and lesbians in the armed forces was mandated by United States federal law Pub.L. 103–160, which was signed November 30, 1993. The policy prohibited people who "demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts" from serving in the armed forces of the United States, because their presence "would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability".
WThe Don't Ask, Don't Tell Repeal Act of 2010 is a landmark United States federal statute enacted in December 2010 that established a process for ending the Don't ask, don't tell (DADT) policy, thus allowing gay, lesbian, and bisexual people to serve openly in the United States Armed Forces. It ended the policy in place since 1993 that allowed them to serve only if they kept their sexual orientation secret and the military did not learn of their sexual orientation, which was controversial.
WThe fragging deaths of Phillip Esposito and Louis Allen occurred on June 7, 2005, at Forward Operating Base Danger in Tikrit, Iraq. Captain Phillip Esposito and First Lieutenant Louis Allen, from a New York Army National Guard unit of the United States 42nd Infantry Division, were mortally wounded in Esposito's office by a Claymore mine and died.
WThe Judge Advocate General's Legal Center and School educates military, civilian, and international personnel in legal and leadership skills. The center is operated by the United States Army and is located on the campus of the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia. The Judge Advocate General's School, the center's graduate-level division federal service academy, is accredited by the American Bar Association to award the Master of Laws (L.L.M.) degree in Military Law. The Master of Laws (L.L.M.) curriculum includes courses in Administrative and Civil Law, Contract and Fiscal Law, Criminal Law, and International and Operational Law.
WSenate Bill 1752, more commonly known as the Military Justice Improvement Act (MJIA), was introduced by U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) in 2013 as an attempt to reform procedures for determinations to proceed to trial by court-martial for certain offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice and for other purposes. The focus of the bill is to address the way that sexual assault in the United States military is handled through the military justice system and the chain of command. The bill has been criticized as potentially leading to a decrease in sexual assault prosecutions and in the protections offered to alleged victims of sexual assault. A watered down bill that keeps Commanders in charge has been championed by Senator Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri. These criticisms come from the status quo who wants to keep things exactly as they are, allowing commanders to continue covering up sexual assaults in their ranks.
WOperation Pastorius was a failed German intelligence plan for sabotage inside the United States during World War II. The operation was staged in June 1942 and was to be directed against strategic American economic targets. The operation was named by Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, chief of the German Abwehr, for Francis Daniel Pastorius, the leader of the first organized settlement of Germans in America.
WSuperior orders, often known as the Nuremberg defense, just following orders, or by the German phrase Befehl ist Befehl, is a plea in a court of law that a person, whether a member of the military, law enforcement, a firefighting force, or the civilian population, should not be considered guilty of committing actions that were ordered by a superior officer or official.
WThe Tailhook scandal was a military scandal and controversy in which United States Navy and U.S. Marine Corps aviation officers were alleged to have sexually assaulted up to 83 women and seven men, or otherwise engaged in "improper and indecent" conduct at the Las Vegas Hilton in Las Vegas, Nevada. The events took place at the 35th Annual Tailhook Association Symposium from September 5 to 8, 1991. The event was subsequently abbreviated as "Tailhook '91" in media accounts.
WUnited States Army Reserve Legal Command (USARLC) is headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland, and was activated on 16 September 2009. It is part of United States Army Reserve Command.
WThe United States Army Trial Defense Service is an independent Field Operating Agency within the US Army Judge Advocate General's Corps, and is part of the US Army Legal Services Agency (USALSA). The TDS motto is "Defending Those Who Defend America."
WUnited States Navy Regulations is the principal regulatory document of the Department of the Navy, endowed with the sanction of law, as to duty, responsibility, authority, distinctions and relationships of various officials, organizations and individuals.