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Judge Advocate General holds Heritage to Horizon meeting

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WASHINGTON (AFNEWS) --  Maj. Gen. Jack L. Rives, the Judge Advocate General, recently hosted a "Heritage to Horizon" meeting at Bolling Air Force Base, D.C. Eleven JAG Corps leaders, all retired general officers or Senior Executive Service civilians, gathered to discuss the way ahead for the corps.

The group brought hundreds of years of service to the table, and their careers span six decades. The panel included several retired major generals including Robert W. Norris, Nolan Sklute and William A. Moorman, the 8th, 11th and 13th TJAGs.

"These members represent a significant part of our corps' history," said General Rives. "I deeply value their wisdom, experience and insights into the JAG Corps and Air Force mission."

The "Heritage to Horizon" concept extends the Air Force chief of staff's emphasis on learning from the past to build the future and it perfectly complements this year's Air Force's 60th Anniversary celebration.

"History is a great teacher," said Lt. Col. Lisa Turner, chief of the JAG Corps Policy and Project Integration Division for Headquarters Air Force, which organized the event.

"Listening to their observations put our current challenges in perspective and they provided us with the right vectors to meet those challenges," she said. "They continue to lead."

The members of this group have remained engaged in Air Force developments even decades after their retirements.

The day included a series of briefings on the wide range of initiatives that are part of the JAG Corps 21 transformation program. The presentations were designed to encourage questions and feedback. The group succeeded; the discussions were lively and note-takers were kept busy, said Colonel Turner.

General Rives summed up the first JAG Corps Heritage to Horizon with his own look to the future.

"I wanted them to question our assumptions, suggest ideas we might have missed, and tell us how they handled similar issues they encountered," he said. "They did exactly that, and their advice was invaluable. The JAG Corps will benefit from their counsel for years to come."