The Mission of the United States Air Force’s Judge Advocate General’s Corps is to “provide the Air Force, commanders, and Airmen with professional, full-spectrum legal support, at the speed of relevance, for mission success in joint and coalition operations.” In short, Air Force Judge Advocate attorneys—or “JAGs”—are the Air Force’s lawyers. Cadet Jones, a third-year law student at the University of Nebraska College of Law, was one of nine individuals across the country selected through the Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps’ One-Year
College Program (OYCP) and is scheduled to graduate and commission in May 2024.
Through the OYCP, Cadet Jones officially joined Detachment 465 this fall after completing Field Training this past summer. He is taking both the junior-level and senior-level ROTC courses concurrently while carrying a full law school course load and serving as the Detachment’s Recruitment Squadron Commander. Prior to law school, Cadet Jones spent six years as a working professional, including serving for just over two years as the judicial assistant to a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. While in law school, Cadet Jones served as a legal extern for the Air Force JAG Corps base legal office at Buckley Space Force Base, CO; as a law clerk for the Criminal Bureau at the Nebraska State Attorney General’s Office; and as a legal intern for Office of General Counsel at United Launch Alliance—one of the world’s largest space launch service providers serving clients that include the U.S. Department of Defense, NASA, and Amazon.
Cadet Jones chose to attend law school—and specifically Nebraska Law—to join the Air Force JAG Corps. Nebraska Law has a proud history of educating current and future JAGs through its Space, Cyber, and National Security Law Program. Cadet Jones hopes to use the skills and experience gained during his time at Nebraska Law, and as a member of Detachment 465, to serve the Mission of the Air Force through providing legal counsel to commanders regarding issues related to military justice (criminal law in the armed forces), civil law, national security law, and space law.
