An Officer Candidate School for Army Lawyers? The JAG Corps Experience (1943-1946)

摘要

On 29 June 1943, the Michigan Daily featured a small article on eighty-three enlisted men attending the first-ever officer candidate school operated by the Judge Advocate General's Department (JAGD) on the campus of the University of Michigan. This is the story of that officer candidate program-and its place as a unique educational episode in our Regiment's history. Within days of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the JAGD began calling Reserve officers to active duty as the United States mobilized for war with the Axis powers. Initially, these lawyers received on-the-job training; however, Major General Myron C. Cramer, The Judge Advocate General (TJAG), quickly realized that this "slow process of apprenticeship" was "impractical" to meet the wartime demands and that the Army must establish a school for refresher training "to afford the proper orientation and indoctrination for bridging the gap between civil and Army life." The first class convened on 2 February 1942 at National University Law School, Washington, D.C., but it became apparent that larger facilities were required. The Judge Advocate General's School, U.S. Army (TJAGSA) was activated at the University of Michigan on 5 August 1942.