“I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same...”
BY EILEEN FORD, JD
The above is from the oath of military enlistment. While two of the alumni profiled here are now civilian attorneys for the Department of Defense, all have shown their allegiance in their distinguished careers.
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John Smallman
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JOHN SMALLMAN, ’89
Special Agent, Naval Criminal Investigative Services
Imagine that you must advise more than 10,000 clients on the laws, customs and practices of a different city in a different country every few weeks. As one member of the Force Protection Counsel for the U.S.S. Constellation Battle Group (CBG), MSU-DCL alumnus John Smallman did just that.
A former FBI agent and Navy JAG, Smallman still is a member of the JAG reserve. His current position is Naval Criminal Investigative Services (NCIS) special agent and he recently completed a tour of duty as special agent afloat, which included a six-month deployment in the western Pacific and Persian Gulf.
In the Gulf, battle-group members were part of Operation Southern Watch, their aircraft patrolling the no-fly zone and their cruisers enforcing the trade embargo. According to Smallman, he and the JAG that he worked with were frequently flying off the Constellation to meet with police and prosecutors prior to the arrival of the ships.
“There were seven ships in the CBG. Many times we would have port calls occurring in several cities at once,” he explains. Using the CBG’s closed circuit televisions, he provided information about local laws and customs to more than 10,000 sailors aboard.
In addition to providing the CBG with assessments of ports they would be visiting, Smallman was responsible for the investigation of major criminal activity and unattended deaths during the deployment. Indeed, one sailor was left behind in the city of Perth, Australia, where he is serving a four-year prison sentence. At the end of the cruise, six felony-level crimes and four deaths were reported. “When you move that many people in an environment that dangerous, things tend to happen,” he says.
The behavior of their own sailors was but one aspect of the Force Protection Counsel’s concern. Even more important were the security and safety of the ships’ assets (the jets) and personnel while on the ship. Less than six months before the CBG’s own departure for the Persian Gulf, the U.S.S. Cole had been attacked in the Yemen port of Aden. When stopped, the CBG would be approached by numerous support vessels with deliveries of fuel, food and other supplies. Smallman would conduct liaison with local officials and then assist the CBG commander in formulating port protocols and prohibited behaviors and places. The port calls in the Persian Gulf were all without major incident.
Ports remaining on their cruise included Singapore, Hong Kong and Hawaii, and Smallman was happy to spend nine days in Singapore where he hoped to be assigned soon. On their way from Hawaii to San Diego, they had on board about 1,000 civilian guests, including Smallman’s father and children. The civilians were entertained with a practice air show on September 10. On September 11, after the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the ships sped home to await orders.
“It was a remarkable experience to walk over to the West Wing or to wander over to the South Lawn and greet the President as he returned from a trip on Marine One.”
Smallman describes much of the at-sea period as arduous and says of the cruise, “I was and am amazed at the precision and dedication of the sailors and Marines who completed this evolution. Many of these people do this eight or 10 times in a career. Once or twice will do it for me!”
As he had hoped, his stint aboard the CBG paid off and he has secured a transfer to Singapore for a four- or five-year tour.
MELINDA LOFTIN, ’81
Associate General Counsel,
Department of the Air Force
At the start of the interview, Loftin chuckles, “So you want to know about my crazy life?”
Loftin says she never planned on working for the military but began as a law clerk at the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive Command (TACOM) during her last summer as a student at MSU-DCL. Kathy (Hoenir) Szymanski, ’80, also worked at TACOM and had encouraged her to apply for the position. “That was 22 years ago,” she says.
Loftin spent several years in various Army assignments handling matters ranging from environmental litigation to contract and labor issues. It was as senior ethics attorney and member of the Environmental Law team with the Army Materiel Command that she received an Army Commendation Medal.
These days, Loftin is not only associate general counsel but also deputy designated agency ethics official, providing advice and counsel on a broad range of ethics matters
to the secretary of the Air Force and
his staff.
Last year, Loftin was assigned to the Office of Counsel to the President at the White House. There she assisted White House presidential appointees on financial disclosure reporting requirements and conflicts of interest. She reviewed nomination packages regarding political appointees confirmed by the Senate. “It was a remarkable experience to walk over to the West Wing or to wander over to the South Lawn and greet the President as he returned from a trip on Marine One,” she says.
Loftin says there were no specific changes in her job after September 11, but “everything surrounding my job changed dramatically.” Although her office is in the Pentagon, she was at a conference in Virginia Beach on the morning of the terrorist attacks. She had been on 24-hour call during Desert Storm and Desert Shield but far from a battlefield and not prepared for the feelings she experienced when she returned to her office two days after the attack.
“I went through tanks and swat teams in order to enter the building. It was reported that the building was still on fire and unstable in areas. I could smell the smoke and there was black soot in my office...the emotions were overwhelming.”
She found it difficult to resume the normal routines of work but found support from the responses of others.
“One unbearable day, I entered the building, and the walls were covered... banners, quilts, pictures and cards from all across America. It was a great source of strength.”
Later, on a night in December, she was driving home from work and glanced up at the roof of the Pentagon where the plane had hit. She saw above it a Christmas tree decorated with red lights.
“I couldn’t help but smile,” she
says. I am very honored and proud to be an attorney for the Department of the Air Force.”
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Capt. Damon Stevens at the pyramids in Egypt
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CAPT. DAMON STEVENS, ’99
Deputy Staff Judge
Advocate General,
The Marine Corps
Captain Damon Stevens has been stationed at Camp Pendleton in California since completing officer training and Naval Justice School. For him, the events of September 11 coincided with his transition from a defense counsel position to that of an operational law officer.
The planning of operations is subject to a legal review based on the interpretations of rules of engagement and the laws of war. Stevens says that he spends much of his time in the classroom, instructing troops on the specifics of these laws. The intricacies of the Geneva Convention and other international agreements may be beyond the grasp of the average soldier, but, says Stevens, “the Marine on the ground has to know what he can and cannot do in specific situations.”
After September 11, the tempo of the work increased markedly. “It is the difference between a training situation and the real world. The pace quickened, and there was a sense of immediacy.”
It was not as though Stevens was accustomed to a leisurely pace while serving as defense counsel. Although the Marines are the smallest of the four major service branches, Camp Pendleton handles 12 percent of all court martials tried by the Department of Defense.
Prior to that first assignment, Stevens completed the Basic School, a six-month training period that includes the same combat training that infantry officers must complete. Stevens notes with some pride that the Marine Corps is the only armed forces branch that requires this training for their JAGs. His boot-camp training was completed between his first and second years of law school. Knowing he wanted to be a Marine, he attended law school first, choosing MSU-DCL because he wanted to earn an MBA with his law degree.
Last October, Stevens was in the Mideast for a multinational exercise involving 70,000 troops and 10 countries. During Operation Bright Star, he acted as the liaison with the U.S. Embassy in Egypt and provided the U.S. ambassador with tours of the exercise.
Stevens is excited about the work he is doing now and feels as though his career has been marked by being “in the right place at the right time.”
Captain Vasco T. (Terry) McRae
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CAPTAIN VASCO T. (TERRY) MCRAE, ’02
United States Army
Like Captain Stevens, Captain Vasco McRae knew from an early age what he wanted to do. A self-proclaimed army “brat”—the son of a master sergeant—McRae knew two things from the time he attended high school in Germany: he wanted to be an officer, and he wanted to be an attorney.
He attended college on a four-year ROTC scholarship and after graduation, his desire to be a soldier and leader was stronger than his desire to go to law school. His first assignment was as a lieutenant paratrooper in the 82nd Airborne Division.
While serving as company commander in the 4th Infantry Division, he was responsible for administering the Uniform Code of Military Justice. That experience rekindled in him his interest in law and in 1997 he was one of ten Army officers selected for the Funded Legal Education Program (FLEP). “I chose MSU-DCL because of the prestige associated with Michigan State University; they have a national reputation.”
Currently McRae is at Fort Bragg with the 18th Airborn Division, which recently hosted a Rules of Engagement conference to discuss the role of the staff judge advocate in the role of homeland security.
As he awaits his Georgia bar results, McRae is handling tort claims filed against the U.S. under the Military Claims Act and the Federal Tort Claims Act. He then will attend the Army JAG school in Charlottesville, Virginia, and expects to return to Fort Bragg and work in the criminal division.
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