Northwest Aerospace News April | May 2019 Issue No. 8 | Page 68

A Dream Becomes a Valuable Reality
Kelli Hooke’s Role as a JAG Serves Her Country Well
S
ometimes we do not know
where a decision will take us or
what many adventures that deci-
sion will trigger. When I was a
very young girl, I decided to be a
lawyer. I didn’t know any law-
yers, but I made it a goal. In high
school, I decided to join the Army,
but not how many of my class-
mates did — I signed a Reserve
Officer Training Corps (ROTC)
contract that came with a scholar-
ship, which I took to the Universi-
ty of Washington.
Coming from a non-military fam-
ily background, I was pleasantly
surprised at how much I enjoyed
my Army training.
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And when I was commissioned as a second lieutenant in 1999, I was thrilled to
go to my first assignment in Germany as a Transportation Officer. No, I was not
a lawyer; those dreams were put on hold as I led a platoon of long-haul trucks
that delivered cargo all over Europe. But I had not forgotten my plan. Later, I
applied to an amazing opportunity called the Funded Legal Education Program
(FLEP). The program selects applicants to go to law school and then become
members of the Judge Advocate General Corps (JAG). I saw this as my ticket
to stay in the Army family that I had grown to love and also to fulfill a girlhood
dream.
I found the opportunities in the JAG Corps to be incredibly diverse. First, the
JAG Corps is structured such that some assignments are like working in a law
firm environment and others are more similar to working as an in-house counsel.
At Army installations, there is an Office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA).
There, a whole host of attorneys are divided up into groups based on practice
area such as an Administrative Law section, a Military Justice section, a Legal
Assistance section, and others depending on the size and type of installation.
These attorneys work the issues that are brought to the OSJA, sending out legal
advice to the command(s) at the installation.