Scott Swanson
While in the ROTC at the University of Oregon in the early 1990s, Mike Adams got interested in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps – made familiar to millions of Americans through the popular TV show “JAG.”
Adams was working on a degree in management communications from Northwest Christian University, and was concurrently enrolled in the Army ROTC program across the street at the UO.
He went on to serve in three infantry battalions in the Army National Guard, part of the 41st Brigade, and rose to the rank of captain before exiting the National Guard in 2003, after nearly 15 years of service.
But earlier this year Adams, 40, re-enlisted, at an age far older than is normally allowed, to serve in the Air National Guard JAG.
“It’s been a great experience – something I’ve wanted to do for years,” he said.
Adams, a local attorney and a member of the city Planning Commission for more than six years, was also elected to the Sweet Home School District #55 School Board last year.
He grew up in Eagle Point and his first experience in Sweet Home was when he came to work at Clear Lumber during summers starting in 1990, he said.
He and Katie Stock, who grew up in Sweet Home, were married in 1993. They have two daughters, Kristen, 12, and Liz, 9.
Adams graduated from law school in 1998 and passed the bar exam. He worked for a year in the office of State Rep. Bob Jenson, R-Pendleton, then spent a year with local attorney John Wittwer before launching his own private law practice in Sweet Home, specializing in real estate, business and probate law for 3 1/2 years. He then spent another 3 1/2 years working for Linn County as a deputy county attorney, assisting county officials with legal matters – mental commitments, contracts, public records and other government law.
“It wasn’t just the Sheriff – it was all elected officials,” he said.
Last year he returned to private practice, though he still works with the county as a private contractor.
His entry into JAG came with some prompting from a fellow officer he knew when he was in the National Guard.
“One of the lieutenants in the battalion when I was a captain in the infantry went on active duty in the Air Force as a JAG officer,” Adams said. “He was working in the DA’s office Linn County, and he talked to me a number of times about joining the Air National Guard as a lawyer.”
Though he was beyond the normal maximum age of 34 for entry into JAG, Adams said he got an exception because of his prior service. The application process took a year and a half, but in May he went to Maxwell Field in Montgomery, Ala. for the nine-week U.S. Air Force Staff Officer Course at the United States Air Force Judge Advocate General’s School.
The training included instruction in the Uniform Code of Military Justice – military law – and the non-judicial punishments available to commanders, moot court and much more, such as physical fitness and other training that one would not normally expect to find in law school.
“Guys had an opportunity to put on a suit and get chased by military dogs. Some guys got shot with TASERS. I got to play with an $80 million C-130 (cargo plane) simulator that they actually use to train pilots.”
Primarily, though, the course was mostly about military law. Adams said he discovered that military courts operate significantly differently than civilian courts.
“There is a guilt phase and then there’s a punishment phase where you argue the appropriate sentence without any kind of mandatory minimum sentencing like we have in the civilian world, like Oregon. They have their own set of rules of what can happen in each phase. It’s a lot more fluid than civilian courts.
“There are some crimes in the UCMJ where you can rate the firing squad.”
During training Adams and his 48 classmates, including one from the Philippines, spent a day training at the Pentagon, toured the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Capitol, and got sworn into the U.S. Criminal Court for the Air Force and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Armed Forces, which have equivalent jurisdiction with the Federal District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals.
One time they attended a reception on Andrews Air Force Base, outside Washington, at the home of a three-star general who is chief attorney for the entire Air Force.
Now that he’s an official member of JAG, Adams is assigned to the 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field in Klamath Falls and will also be serving the 142nd Fighter Wing in Portland, the two bases in Oregon that have F-15s on standby for NORAD.
He is on duty at least one weekend a month and 15 days during the year, and will also be under contract to advise commanders during the weeks when he’s not on active duty.
“It’s been a great experience,” Adams said. “The continuing legal education and experience, and serving our country has been a good thing.”