FRED L. Borch Regimental Historian & Archivist 26 July 2017 The Judge Advocate General’s Corps: Writing the History of Recent Operations FRED L. Borch Regimental Historian & Archivist 26 July 2017

Assumption Significant (large scale) US Army involvement in both Afghanistan and Iraq will end within five years (hard to write a good and complete monograph if you don’t know the end of the story)

But even if our Army’s involvement does not end within five years, it will at some date . . . Not too early to get started writing about the two conflicts

Vision Two volumes: “Judge Advocates in Afghanistan: Law in Military Operations from 2001-XXXX” “Judge Advocates in Iraq: Law in Military Operations from 2003-XXXX”

Challenges / Decisions Author(s)? Research team(s)? Theme ? Organization? Sources? Timeline?

Author(s) & Team(s) One overall history project manager One principal author for each book? Two research/writing teams Who? (Active/Reserve/Guard) How many? How long?

Theme Operational law Strategic level Operational level Tactical level

Operational law topics Law of Armed Conflict Targeting Detainees & interrogation War crimes Rules of engagement

Courts-martial & Civilian Courts U.S. v. Bales, Lorance Blackwater killings

Contract/Fiscal Law Construction Combat related contracting Contract fraud

Administrative law ‘green-on-blue’ investigations Friendly fire investigations Other investigations (COP Keating)

Claims Solatia (goodwill) payments Combat & non-combat related claims

Rule of Law building Afghan, Iraqi judicial systems

Sources Interviews Identifying subjects (i.e. all staff judge advocates/legal advisors; selected individuals) Conducting interviews

Documents Unclassified Electronic?

Timeline? Backwards planning Six years (research to finished manuscripts) Start: September 2017

Conclusion Two volumes (Afghanistan & Iraq) on Army lawyers in military operations Long term (six years plus) Challenges will be finding the right authors/researchers and continuity