TRENTON, New Jersey -- Legal Command conducted its largest training exercise in the history of the command, April 26 to May 4.
Exercise Ready Justice consisted of conducting legal operations in a simulated austere environmental on the Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst training grounds with an evaluation by an observer controller-trainer team.
"This [exercise] is a whole new model," said Command Sgt. Maj. Marcus Montoya, senior enlisted advisor for Legal Command.
"[Ready Justice] is the foundation for future legal operations exercises to train in smaller chunks, more frequency, more depth, more intense, more mobile, and with a larger training audience," said Montoya.
Judge advocates and paralegals trained on Soldier skills such as evacuating a casualty, tactical movement, reacting to a chemical attack, providing area security and a quick reaction force, and establishing multiple tactical operations centers for 24-hour operations.
This was all in preparation for the apex of the exercise - the 72-hour staff exercise where Legal Command Soldiers were evaluated on their teams' ability to do conduct legal operations related to command discipline, national security law, pre-deployment support, and detainee operations.
"The [training scenarios] create an environment where you have to use teamwork to get anything done," said Master Sgt. Mark Johnson, paralegal with 153rd Legal Operations Detachment.
"Paralegals working alongside with the attorneys - just in of itself creates that teamwork and benefits us in training and in real world."
The training execution was dictated the Master Scenario Events List and with individuals like Maj. Amy Sorak, judge advocate with 87th LOD, who manage the 70 injects that require judge advocates and paralegals to take appropriate action.
"These injects are similar to what I experienced in my time as a JAG on active duty," said Sorak, who serves as the assistant attorney general for the state of Colorado in her civilian job.
"[The training is] very realistic and these are things that [our Soldiers] need to be aware of when they go down range," said Sorak.
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U.S. Army Legal Command, located in Gaithersburg, Maryland, exercises mission command and control of trained and ready legal forces across 104 cities in 43 states in the continental U.S., Puerto Rico, and Europe. USARLC is a one-star command of over 1,700 Soldiers that controls the operations of 28 Legal Operations Detachments providing multi-functional legal support to commanders, Soldiers, and family members in support of military operations.
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