The Caine Mutiny Court Martial - JAG

[dhermann1]

I'm playing Capt. Blakeley, the presiding officer at the Caine Mutiny Court Martial in our community theater group, here in Brooklyn. (I'll post more info as the date approaches for those interested. We open Nov. 30.)
I'm curious if anyone can help me come up with a back story for my character. I figure he's about 56 years old, which means he would have graduated from the Naval Academy about 1909. Where would a Naval JAG officer have gone to law school in those days? Did active duty officers go to law school? Would he have had sea duty? Would he have had other experiences in the Navy before going to law school? What would have been normal and typical for an officer in his position?
One fun aspect is that one of the cast members is a SERIOUS WW II re-enactor. (I've told him all about the Lounge.) He has managed to get correct authentic period uniforms for everyone in the show. Pretty cool to try on a perfectly fitting Navy Captain's uniform, with four gold stripes on the sleeve.
I dug up and shared with the cast a little info on the great typhoon of December 18, 1944, which is the back story of the play. There was a very real, and very disastrous typhoon that Admiral Halsey sailed right into the middle of. Three destroyers were lost, with a death toll of over 800 men, so the Caine's situation could have been very real. It's a fascinating play, and the more we rehearse it the more I appreciate it. I hope a few loungers will be able to make it. It's the reason I won't be at the QM this year. I've been called to active (or is it acting?) duty.
Thanks for your help gang.

 

[Fletch]

Just a guess here, d...might a wartime Navy lawyer have been a civilian appointee? Perhaps from a specialty like maritime law?

Many, usually older, professionals and businessmen were brought into the services at advanced ranks (altho captain would have been rare, unless you were a senior partner or CEO).

 

[KObalto]

I have a friend

who is a lawyer who caught the bug while in the Navy during Korea. As a college grad, he was appointed to represent sailors at courts martial even though he had no formal legal training. He went to law school after he was discharged. I'm not sure if the judge would have to be an attorney, though.

 

[Fletch]

My mom, a college educated Lt.j.g. in the late 50s, was more than once called upon to represent sailors at captain's mast, a nonjudicial disciplinary proceeding. I wonder if this is actually what your cousin did, altho I suppose nonlawyers might have to represent at actual courts-martial in wartime.

In 1957 the Iowa State NROTC unit was assigned CMCM as part of their naval science course and got to know it so well they presented it in public as a play. My dad played Queeg. He considers it his high point in the theater.

 

[Treetopflyer]

More than likely..

He would have been a civilian lawyer and when the war broke out he was given the rank that went with his experience. That still happens today with some of the Navy Medical Corps. Also, the Navy does have officers in every command that have limited legal training in dealing with non-judicial punishment, or otherwise known as Captains Mast. It is a collateral duty. The training they receive is about a month long. It is one of those jobs you pray you never get.

 

[Fletch]

In my mom's day, the sailors going to mast were typically there for mid-level infractions, like coming back late from liberty. Serious, you bet, but not the sort of thing that warranted calling a court-martial together.

 

[dhermann1]

The guy who's helping with the technical stuff, and the uniforms, is an ardent WW II reenactor. * He tells me that the guy in the movie with my character is sporting a Navy Cross on his chest. So I guess he must have had SOME seagoing service before he went to law school. Also, I would think the presiding officer for a mutiny trial would be a man with considerable experience of both the law and naval life. Anyhow, I'm finding myself adopting the mannerisms of the Federal judge who presided at the trial I served on the jury for a couple of years go, and when I make my rulings I'm hearing Dwight Eisenhower's voice come out. lol Gravitas!!! The minute I get pix of myself in the full captain's mufti, it's going on my avatar.
* I've been telling this guy about the Lounge and he's interested, but so far hasn't stopped by. He's a photographer for the NY Daily News, and dresses as if he was a photographer from 1940. He owns 13 of those bog old Graphlex cameras! Cool guy.

 

[carter]

This sounds like fun. When are the production dates?
It would be nice to see pictures from the production.

Wouldn't it have been feasible that this officer had served aboard ship, gone to law school on the Navy's dime, and returned to active duty once he earned his law degree?
OR...
We have a frind who enlisted in the army after high school, went to the Defense Language Institute and learned Korean, met his future wife, and served in Korea. Once he fulfilled his military commitment, he went to college, graduated, went to Law School at SMU, and is now a London-based attorney for a US Firm.
I could envision a scenario where he reentered the military if called upon. This could also explain decorations worn by this officer.
This is at least one plausible backstory for your character.

 

[dhermann1]

My assumption is that he went to the Academy around 1909, served on ship board, and went to law school after WW I.
The dates are Nov 30, opening night, then Dec 1, 7, 8, 14 and 15 at 8 PM, and Sunday matinees, Dec 2, 9 and 16. I think it will be a very impressive production. It's community theater, so I don't know if I'd mount an expedition all the way from Texas to see it, but it's good community theater. But any Lounger who shows up will be GREATLY appreciated! There will definitely be pix.

 

[52Styleline]

The "Cane" courts martial was set in WWII so that was in the time of what old salts called the "Rocks and Shoals" period of military justice. The Universal Code of Military Justice had not yet been implemented.

Rank was more important than legal training at that time, although there were certainly lawyers in the Navy. In my humble opinion as a Naval officer of a later period, the commander of the Cane was (as I remember) a full Captain. I suspect that the Navy would have seen to it that the defense was the best available. Although the ajudicating officers may not have had legal training, the officer trying and defending the case very likely would have been legaly trained.

OK, now who took my strawberries?

 

[Fletch]

the commander of the Cane was (as I remember) a full Captain.

According to the script he was Lt. Cmdr. Queeg. (PS landlubbers: the commanding officer of any vessel is called Captain, notwithstanding hi/r rank).

What he was, undeniably, was a longtime, peacetime Navy officer, something that Lt. Greenwald pointed out made him deserving of at least the dignity becoming his rank and years of service - and possibly even more than that. (An acquittal? That we're left to ponder.)