The Learning Curve

With the start of my military justice career, I feel like I'm constantly running as fast as I can. There's so much for me to learn, both about the area of practice and the individual cases on which I am now the responsible attorney.

The first three weeks have flown by. I have been trying to soak up absolutely as much as I can from the other attorneys with whom I work; we're losing our two most experienced trial counsels and our designated senior trial counsel in the next two months. Then there will be three brand new trial counsels running the show -- kind of a scary thought for my boss, I'm sure.

I advise seven commanders -- most of whom are captains, but also one major, one lieutenant colonel, and one colonel. Each has a different style, different expectations, and different priorities. Time management and dynamic work flow will be very important to my success.

I had my first arraignment last Friday and I did the sentencing argument in my first court martial yesterday -- lots to learn here as well. It's one thing to read court procedure, and another thing to do things properly all the time on the spot. But there is only one way to learn. Both proceedings went well enough; in the Army it's all about trying to meet the commander's intent when you can, and trying to manage expectations when you can't. For the sentencing, we met their intent for the Soldier so that's good.

I've played golf each of the last two weekends, and I plan to play again tomorrow if the weather holds. There's a pretty decent Army course just a little outside Heidelberg. I expect before I leave I'll know every hole and green just like I did the one at UVA.

After a short week of work, I'm leaving on Friday to visit Mom.

Constanta

My "business trip" to Romania resulted in a few minor legal issues resolved, a few tax returns prepared, quite a few pages read, and fingers dipped in the Black Sea.



After taking a train down to the Stuttgart Flughaffe, I boarded the first of three Carpat Air flights on the way to Constanta. Carpat Air has a small fleet of prop planes, but despite being glorified crop-dusters they got the job done. I cleared customs in Timisoara on the western border of Romania, then connected in a small town in central Romania, before landing at the Mihail Kogalnicenau air strip about thirty minutes drive from Constanta. The base of Task Force East (a joint training mission between Americans, Romanians, and Bulgarians), and my temporary home, was directly adjacent to the air strip.

I was picked up at the airport by a few of the Department of the Army (DA) civilian employees I was there to assist. They showed my to the barracks room where I would stay and delivered me to the dining facility so I could eat quickly before it closed. From there, I headed to the "cantina" for a beer before heading to bed.

The Cantina.

Over the next two days, I managed to scrape out a little legal assistance for some of the deployed population; I think next time the "need" arises, it could be accomplished remotely with email and phone.

My office building.

My office.


On both Thursday and Friday night I found chaperones for a visit to Constanta. The city houses a large seaport on the Black Sea and supports a summer resort community just to the north. The "landmarks" of the city are the old closed down casino on the "boardwalk," and the headquarters of the Romanian Navy (a fleet of six ships I think). Just inland from those landmarks is a run-down area of town where the old communist regime had quarantined the large gypsy population -- what would otherwise have been the best real estate was the gypsy "dumping ground." Real estate developers have apparently noticed this, and the area is slowly gentrifying. Watch your wallets...
Romanian Navy headquarters.

The Casino on the Black Sea.
Thursday night featured dinner at "Beirut," a fantastic Lebanese restaurant, followed by drinks at a Dutch Pub. Friday night saw the deployed DAs weekly circuit: dinner and drinks at the Irish Pub (which was neither Irish nor a pub), karaoke at a Turkish-owned hole-in-the-wall, and salsa dancing late night. It was a fun couple of nights, and with Romania not yet on the Euro it was pretty darn inexpensive too.

Overall conclusions: (1) Romania is worth a visit, if only because it is so cheap (although I hear northern Romania has some worthwhile cultural attractions -- Transylvania and all that); (2) you can get by in Romania speaking English supplemented with any romance languange -- Romanian is like a poor-man's Italian; (3) when you go on a business trip to do legal assistance, bring a couple good books just in case.

Orthodox Church with adjacent Roman ruins.
Roman ruins -- a brief description in Romanian.

Back in the HD

Arrived back in Heidelberg. I'll put up some info about my brief Romania travels sometime in the next couple days.