POHAKULOA TRAINING AREA, Hawaii - More than two dozen military lawyers and paralegals trained, here, last week, to sharpen their skills in preparation for upcoming deployments.
The Pacific Air Forces' Pacific Joint Operations Legal Exerciser, or PACJOLE, is an annual localized training event comparable to the Judge Advocate General flag, the Air Force JAG school's exercise held at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.
Similar to real deployments, the legal teams faced harsh conditions at this 130,000-acre training area. With its loose volcanic rock, the training area is a perfect place to simulate deployments.
During the five-day exercise, each team of two lawyers, or one lawyer and one paralegal, attended 15 hours of classroom lessons and discussion sessions, and participated in 30 role-playing scenarios. Officials from the Headquarters PACAF Legal Office observed and critiqued the students' responses to the scenarios.
The goal of the exercise was to prepare students for upcoming deployments.
"This year's PACJOLE was unique in that we had participants from all the services: Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and a student from our coalition partner, Australia" said Lt. Col. Jerry Villarreal, PACAF's chief of International Law. "Learning to handle situations in this fairly austere training environment will give them the confidence they'll need when they actually deploy."
Scenarios were loosely based on things that have actually happened in the Pacific theater and other areas of operation.
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