CLAMO' at 25: The Center for Law and Military Operations Celebrates Twenty-Five Years

• Author: Fred L. Borch
• Position: Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General's Corps
• Pages: 193-213

2013] CLAMO CELEBRATES TWENTY-FIVE YEARS 193

“CLAMO” AT 25: THE CENTER FOR LAW AND MILITARY

OPERATIONS CELEBRATES TWENTY-FIVE YEARS1

FRED L. BORCH*

I. Introduction

In December 2013, the Center for Law and Military Operations

(CLAMO) celebrated its 25th anniversary as an Army institution.

Established by then Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh, Jr. in

December 1988,2 CLAMO grew out of the experiences of judge

advocates in Grenada during Operation Urgent Fury in 1983 and the

recognition gained from other similar events that domestic and

international law affected the planning for, and conduct and sustainment

of, U.S. military operations. This idea behind CLAMO was that it would

examine legal issues arising during military operations, and then devise

“training strategies”3 for addressing those issues. Stated another way,

CLAMO would gather legal lessons learned from military operations,

analyze those lessons, and then disseminate them to judge advocates

throughout the Army—and the entire Defense Department.4 This would

ensure that uniformed lawyers advising commanders during operations

not only profited from the experiences of their predecessors grappling

* Regimental Historian and Archivist for the U.S. Army Judge Advocate General’s

Corps. He graduated from Davidson College (A.B., 1976), from the University of North

Carolina (J.D., 1979), and from the University of Brussels, Belgium (LL.M, magna cum

laude, International and Comparative Law, 1980). Mr. Borch also has advanced degrees

in military law (LL.M., The Judge Advocate General's School, 1988), National Security

Studies (M.A., highest distinction, Naval War College, 2001), and history (M.A.,

University of Virginia, 2007). From 2012 to 2013, Mr. Borch was a Fulbright Scholar in

the Netherlands, where he was a Visiting Professor at the University of Leiden and a

Visiting Researcher at the Netherlands Institute of Military History.

Colonel (Retired) Fred Borch is the author of a number of books and articles on

legal and non-legal topics, including Judge Advocates in Combat: Army Lawyers in

Military Operations from Vietnam to Haiti (2001), and Judge Advocates in Vietnam:

Army Lawyers in Southeast Asia (2004). His latest book is Medals for Soldiers and

Airmen: Awards and Decorations of the United States Army and Air Force (2013).

1 A previous version of this article, titled Spotlight on: The Center for Law and Military

Operations, appeared in The Judge Advocate General’s Legal Center and School’s

Annual Bulletin, 2012–2013, at 13, available at http://www.loc.gov/rr/frd/Military_Law/

pdf/AB_2012-2013.pdf.

2 Memorandum from John O. Marsh, Jr., Sec’y of Army, for The Judge Advocate

General, subject: Establishment of a Center for Law and Military Operations (21 Dec.

1988) [hereinafter Marsh Memorandum], reprinted in ARMY LAW., Apr. 1989, at 3.

3 CLAMO Moves Forward, REGIMENTAL REPORTER 1 (Fall 1996).

4 Id.

194 MILITARY LAW REVIEW [Vol. 217

with similar legal issues, but also would help these same judge advocates

avoid any legal pitfalls or failures that had occurred in past military

operations. What follows is the story of CLAMO’s first twenty-five

years in operation. It begins with a look at the impetus for the creation of

CLAMO before examining the evolution of CLAMO in the 1990s and

2000s. This article concludes with some thoughts on the future of

CLAMO. Finally, two appendices contain information on those judge

advocates who have been a part of CLAMO and publications produced

by CLAMO.

II. Origins of CLAMO

Since the decision to create CLAMO resulted from the emergence of

operational law (OPLAW) as a distinct practice area in the Judge

Advocate General’s Corps (JAGC), a brief discussion of why and how

OPLAW came to exist is necessary.

On March 16, 1968, members of Company C, 1st Battalion, 20th

Infantry Regiment, an element of the Americal Division, murdered some

350 innocent Vietnamese civilians at the small village of My Lai. After

an investigation concluded that First Lieutenant William F. Calley and

twelve men under his command were chiefly responsible for the killings,

Calley was charged with the murder of 109 civilians.5 While the twelve

other soldiers also were charged with murder, only Calley was

convicted.6 On 29 March 1971, Calley was found guilty of premeditated

murder by a general court-martial convened at Fort Benning, Georgia,

and sentenced to life imprisonment.7

While action taken by the convening authority and others

subsequently resulted in Calley being paroled in 1974,8 the end of

“Rusty” Calley’s legal problems did not diminish the negative fall-out

from what was (and is) popularly called the “My Lai Massacre.”9 On the

contrary, the killings at My Lai caused much soul searching and

consternation among Americans in general. The ramifications of this

5 WILLIAM M. HAMMOND, PUBLIC AFFAIRS: THE MILITARY AND THE MEDIA, 1968–1973,

U.S. ARMY IN VIETNAM 220–24 (1996).

6 Id.

7 United States v. Calley, 46 C.M.R. 1131 (A.C.M.R. 1973)

8 HAMMOND, supra note 5, at 252.

9 RICHARD HAMMER, THE COURT-MARTIAL OF LT. CALLEY 18 (1971).