Lieutenant Colonel Susan Upward is a staff judge advocate in the U.S. Marine Corps.

I spoke with her recently, and she wanted to make it clear that I'm here in my personal capacity.

My opinions are my own.

Don't reflect those of the Department of Defense or the United States Navy or the Marine Corps.

That's important because God knows somebody may, you know,

hear this recording and say, she's representing the DOD, and I'm not.

You've probably seen or heard of the TV show Jag. She's a Jag in the Marine Corps. And no,

her job does not resemble the show. I've not flown in a F-18 or an F-14 anytime in my career.

Young attorneys sometimes get a little star-struck by shows like JAG

where they're like, oh, I'm going to go do operational law

and be beside the commander as rounds are going overhead.

That is a very rare occurrence, Even at the height of the Iraq and

Afghanistan war, there were very few attorneys in those positions providing that advice at the point

of friction, as I call it. Susan did work at the point of friction, and we'll talk about that

later. On a day-to-day basis, her job is to serve as a kind of

in-house counsel for a handful of commanders. And what she advises them on most are military

justice issues. So a Marine gets in trouble, you know, what are the options open to the commander

to deal with that disciplinary issue, either know, what are the options open to the commander to deal with that

disciplinary issue, either administratively or through the military justice system?

There are massive demands on their time. They don't, and military justice or they don't want to

spend a lot of time with their lawyer. Let's be honest. They want to be out training, equipping,

and manning their unit to prepare for war fighting. That's what we do. So the more that I can take

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