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26 Judge Advoc. J. 1 (1958)

handle is hein.journals/jajrnl28 and id is 1 raw text is: ABA PROGRAM FOR LAWYERS IN THE ARMED FORCES By Charles S. Rhyne * Following the decision of the United States Supreme Court in the Girard case, newspaper headlines screamed for weeks about the in- justice to an American G.I. in al- lowing him to be tried in a Japa- nese court. The concern of these headline writers was, of course, that Girard might not receive the fair trial and adequate defense which is such a proud tradition here in America. Actually, due to an un- fortunate and growing situation ex- isting in our military legal corps, Girard may have received a better defense and been better off to be tried as he was with an experienced civilian defense counsel, rather than in a military court with inexperi- enced counsel. This statement is certainly not meant in derogation of some of the nation's finest lawyers who devote their lives to military service nor to the many fine young men who do their very best to see that men in service receive good legal advice. But the cold facts are -that close to 50 per cent of our military law- yers are inexperienced and only re- cently graduated from law school. This sad state of affairs is caused by young lawyers not desiring to make a career of the military serv- ice because of (1) inadequate pay; (2) lack of promotion; and (3) lack of prestige. There are undoubtedly other factors, but these are the most important. By reason of the post- college years he must spend in law school and preparation for his bar examination, the military lawyer commences his career three to four years later than does his college contemporary in the line and most of the other staff corps. Under pres- ent law this causes him to remain permanently behind his contempo- raries in both promotion eligibility and longevity pay. It makes him three to four years older upon reaching the retirement eligibility age. In the event he is retired for physical disability, his retirement pay at a given age is less due to the longevity factor. All during his career, the military lawyer loses up to four years longevity pay credit and receives approximately fifty dol- lars per month less than his line officer contemporary. It should also be noted that military lawyers are required to finance their own profes- sional education. Since virtually every young law- yer gets out of the service as soon as his required tour of duty is com- pleted, obviously he would not have come in at all if it were not for the fact that this is less distasteful * President of the American Bar Association, a member of the bar of the District of Columbia.

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