JAG CORPS DEVELOPMENT SYMPOSIUM

Adm. Daryl Caudle

SHERATON WATERSIDE NORFOLK

COMMANDER, U.S. FLEET FORCES COMMAND

17 September 2024

· Good morning everyone!

· Thank you for the kind introduction, and for inviting me to come speak to you all today.

· I'm very excited to get into the details of my presentation today, because I fundamentally believe that the counsel coming from the brilliant minds of our Navy's legal professionals is independent, irreplaceable, and indispensable for Commanders to properly manage risk, develop complex policy decisions, and ultimately ensure successful execution of mission tasking through deliberate adjudication of our military and legal authority.

· From the get-go with my time with you this morning, I'll be extremely clear of my stance: Our Navy's JAG Corps does not exist solely for the important tasks of executing military justice, serving as a "personal attorney" supporting our Sailors, or adjudicating ethical decisions about my modes of travel and gifts received.

· Instead, as naval officers yourselves, you are all part of the profession of arms who bring to the table an unmatched impact to naval operations by leveraging your legal knowledge within the appropriate forums and decision processes. You share an expert

practitioner's view of the no-kidding utilization and delegation of command responsibilities and authorities, which requires a rigorous understanding across the legal spectrum including the technical details existing within an operational context.

************* ROLE OF USFFC *************

· Before I get into some real-world examples of the critical role of the JAG Corps in mission execution, for those of you in the room who are unsure of what I do at U.S. Fleet Forces Command, I am charged by the Chief of Naval Operations with executing the service authority under Title 10 of the United States Code to organize, train, and equip naval forces assigned to me.

· This includes a force of over 125,000 Sailors and Civilians with hundreds of ships, submarines, and aircraft and support facilities across the U.S. Atlantic Fleet that can ultimately prevail in a high-end conflict while meeting the objectives of our Combatant Commanders.

· My team operates on two pillars, first - the Fleet, made up of the platforms, payloads and most

importantly, the warfighters. The Fleet protects America from attack and goes forward to defend our interests around the world - and if needed - fight and win on terms favorable to the United States.

· Second, the Foundry - which is the sum of the industrial base, maintenance capabilities and capacity, high-end training systems and doctrine, and policy decisions required to support the Fleet's operations.

· In addition to my role as U.S. Fleet Forces, I am assigned as U.S. Naval Forces North, the maritime component of U.S. Northern Command, responsible for providing maritime forces prepared to conduct homeland defense, civil support operations, and theater security cooperation activities within the geographic limits of North America and its waters.

· Additionally, I serve as the Joint Force Maritime Component Commander to U.S. Strategic Command in which I oversee the employment of all naval strategic forces and provide operational planning and coordination support to STRATCOM.

************ UNCLASS THREAT BRIEF ************

· If you had a good grade school geography teacher, you'll recall that ~70% of the Earth is covered in water.

· And ~80% of the world's population lives within 100 miles of our world's global commons, with nearly every megacity included. Looking at it another way, 147 of approximate 200 nations on this Earth border an ocean or sea.

· Next, more than 90% of all international trade - almost everything we buy and sell - travels by sea.

· Finally, the seabed plays host to a large network of undersea fiber-optic cables, through which 99% of global internet traffic passes fueling the modern economy.

· And so, 70, 80, 90 and 99; all of this adds up to mean that the seas are growing ever-more congested, more contested, and more vital to our national interests.

· The sea has once again emerged as a primary focal point for peer competition, where the international commons are threatened and attacked with kinetic

and non-kinetic fires that are growing in range, complexity and precision.

· We live in an increasingly complex global security environment, characterized by overt challenges to the free and open international order and the re-emergence of long-term, strategic competition between nations.

· Russia, well into the second year of their invasion of Ukraine, is a capable adversary that remains an 'acute threat.'

· Militarily, and particularly within the undersea domain, they've undergone a significant rearmament program over the last decade, fielding some very exquisite technology, including capabilities like SEVERODVINSK class submarine, equipped with the KALIBR family of weapons systems, which can quietly bring long range land attack and surface cruise missiles within striking distance of our homeland.

· PRC, on the other hand, is a rapidly rising power and our 'pacing threat' from short-term to long-term competition. They have the military and economic strength to potentially challenge us for a significant number of years.

· In addition to launching over 100 warships in the last decade including the very capable LUYANG destroyer and RENHAI cruiser, they are also pursuing capabilities designed to contest our access in times of crisis, including the weaponization of space and undersea domains to deny our ability to see, sense, understand, and make decisions at the speed of relevancy.

· The new 'no-limits relationship' between the two powers, Russia and China, should be concerning to us all.

· Recently, a Russian and Chinese maritime Task Force of several surface and subsurface platforms conducted the largest combined patrol to date within the INDO-PACOM and NORTHCOM areas of responsibility.

· Just last July, Russian and Chinese aircraft flew a joint military air patrol composed of H-6 and T-U-95 bombers, which then entered Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone.

· And, of course, I cannot leave out countries like North Korea and Iran.

· North Korea continues to launch an unprecedented number of missiles to perfect the capability of

holding South Korea, Japan, the continental United States, and our Allies at risk of nuclear attack.

· Iran has unlawfully seized multiple civilian-owned ships with legal cargo in attempt to own the Strait of Hormuz and coerce the international economy. They have also green-lit, funded, and supplied their proxies to start wreaking havoc on free shipping in the Red Sea.

· The Houthis in Yemen or Hamas in Gaza, common names in today's headlines, will always keep us engaged as they continue to probe and attack our forces as they seek to destabilize the region or disrupt civilian merchants carrying our international commerce through the maritime commons and vital waterways.

************ GMRP AND AUTHORITIES ************

· To ensure that our Navy is ready to meet these challenges, I am tasked with managing the generation of forces to respond to these threats.

· This task of force generation includes the training and delivery of combat power from our fleet to the time and place where it is needed to defend American interests.

· My combat units need an unprecedented level of fungibility and fluency within the existing defined authorities and delegations required to shift the Navy from peacetime into wartime.

· We've had to ask ourselves tough questions, like what authorities or delegations would we need to shift our Navy into high gear, generating, deploying, and regenerating a large surge of combat ready maritime forces with little to no notice?

· This is where a major effort by my staff fits in, including those by the U.S. Fleet Forces JAG team - the development of the Global Maritime Response Plan or GMRP.

· In order to get more ships, submarines, aircraft, and Sailors "out the door" in response to the next global conflict, the GMRP identifies assumptions, permissions, authorities, and waivers to meet the increased demand tied to indications and warnings in order to generate, prioritize, and sustain combat ready forces across all phases of warfare.

· This plan simply does not work without a rigorous technical understanding of the authorities, business rules, and the risks associated with waiving or delegating authority to lower echelons of commands.

· My Fleet JAG team regularly provides me expert legal advice on those complex issues, informed by their unparalleled understanding of the roles and responsibilities as well as the Mission, Functions, and Tasks assigned.

· They facilitated the crafting of responsibilities that were needed and aided in directing those authorities to the appropriate decision level, determining who can ultimately approve the desired outcome.

· The end result is a clear path that allows authorities to flow downward to lowest possible level to enable faster response and decision cycles.

************ ONE ATLANTIC ************

· To illustrate another example where our JAG Corps has realized operational impact, a line of longitude splitting the Atlantic Ocean into two parts is the geographic Unified Command Plan line of separation between NORTHCOM and EUCOM.

· On the west side of this line, maritime operations are executed by the U.S. Second Fleet and on the east side by U.S. Sixth Fleet. Each of these numbered fleets commanders and their assets report to separate military authorities on either side of the line.

· Even though the line is just a construct, the separation of legal authorities and responsibilities on either side of this line is real and accountable. Authorities across this single ocean were bifurcated by our existing C2 model.

· The captain of a Russian submarine transiting east to west to hold our cities at risk with long range land attack cruise missiles does not care about this imaginary line in the ocean during his transit.

· While the Russian submarine is free to drive from one theater into another, this line prevented forces from either U.S. Fleet to cross and follow the Russian submarine into another theater.

· To better improve force flow, we have established the authorities under the "ONE ATLANTIC" model, using implementation guidance from our Fleet JAGs, to leverage the Global Force Management Implementation Guidance to allow our fleet assets to flow back and forth across the transition line between theaters when required for specific missions and time frames.

· This force sharing is done without formal SDOB actions like a Request for Forces.

************ SHORE C2 ************

· Continuing with the example of easing stress created by ineffective and overlapping C2 structures, our Fleet JAG team recently helped to revamp the responsibilities for the execution of our Regional Shore Commanders.

· The premise was based on operating our shore-based equipment which is fundamentally no different than operating equipment on our ships. Operations are operations when it comes to risk ownership.

· Previously, all decisions and authorities for our shore infrastructure flowed between the Commander of Navy Installations Command to the Commander of each Region (Northwest, Southeast, etc.) then on to each installation commander.

· However, this C2 structure failed to recognize that the Fleet Commanders were the actual risk owners and should be the supported Commanders when it comes to shore readiness and resiliency.

· Put simply, we learned we cannot think about these installations solely as "infrastructure." We must treat our Shore Infrastructure like all other combat

platforms, just like submarines, surface ships, and aircraft.

· This required an updated Shore C2 arrangement to codify governance and clear lines of accountability, all informed by risk to Force and risk to Mission through the Fleet Commander's eyes, not just the eyes of CNIC. A clear lesson learned from Red Hill.

· Our JAG team, through meticulous research and advisement, facilitated the crafting of responsibilities and lines of authority that were needed to solve this problem.

· This resulted in a unique solution in which we dual-hatted the Regional Commanders as Naval Shore Force Commanders, with direct reporting relationships to U.S. Fleet Forces and Commander Pacific Fleet.

· With this update, the roles and responsibilities of the Region and Naval Shore Force Commanders were better defined, normalized to our standard C2 models, and aligned more effectively so that the deferral of planned maintenance, or repairs to critical shore-based systems and facilities, or high-risk operational evolutions require Fleet Commanders to be part of the decision-making process.

************ CDA CASE #1 RED HILL ************

· So, while my previous examples demonstrate how my JAG team advises me on ways to better shape our battlespace and organizational efficacy by improving rigid, ineffective, and/or overlapping C2 lines, they also will help me sort through the facts, opinions, responsibilities, timelines, technical details, and accountability mechanisms for events that have already occurred.

· As many may know, I served as the Consolidated Disposition Authority (CDA) after the investigations into the Red Hill Fuel leak on Oahu. As CDA, I was singularly responsible to determine what accountability action, if any, was appropriate for Navy service members linked to the casualty mechanisms for one and/or both fuel spills.

· As a quick recap of the events, an operator error in May of 2021 caused a pipe to rupture and 20,000 gallons of fuel leaked from the system. Unknown by Red Hill's team, most of this went into the site's fire suppression system after they inadequately accounted for the total volume of the fuel lost.

· Six months later, a cart collided with a riser of the fire suppression system, causing almost 18,000

gallons of fuel to leak from the fire suppression system, into the ground water via aquifers that fed wells providing drinking water to housing units and neighborhoods at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam.

· In addition to environmental contamination issues, this presented some real health concerns to the family members stationed at Pearl Harbor.

· After two extensive investigations, and thousands of pages of interviews, fact finding, environmental reports, witness statements, design blueprints, contracts, and contract addendums, I was assigned responsibility to sort through this massive set of investigative material and determine which individuals **point at screen** and to what degree their actions contributed to the overall mishap.

· So now, I needed to translate the facts of the investigation into a standard rubric-based structure to ensure I maintained a consistent line of thinking and accountability.

o Who caused the first leak?

o Who installed or approved the wrong material?

o Who was the approving authority for the material change?

o Who inadequately accounted for the original lost volume of fuel?

o Did the existing set of instructions, procedures, and orders properly delineate roles and responsibilities adequately?

o Who held specific responsibility to ensure that this would not occur?

o What Commanders were responsible for oversight?

· While I have plenty of experience in root cause analysis and human decision-making to identify the engineering failures and the breakdown in the human task-execution processes, I relied heavily on my Fleet JAG team for their legal understanding of the authorities and responsibilities to sort through the facts, assess the contributing factors and determine who had authority commensurate with their assigned responsibilities, and ultimately determine a consistent accountability path forward for this event.

· I'd like to pause here and point something out. Earlier in my remarks, I discussed your value not just in the meticulousness in which you apply yourselves

to the law, but also your application to the context and environment in which that law is operating.

· You will need to dive in and understand the technical details of the investigation or operating environment with the same level of rigor that you understand the legal requirements unwritten within the scenario.

· This was no small task for my JAG team at U.S. Fleet Forces. Months of dedicated effort. They were simply instrumental and indispensable for me to execute my CDA responsibilities.

************ CDA CASE #2 GW QoS ************

· It's not just about looking backward to determine accountability either. My Fleet JAG team also helps me review incidents and investigations to go forward and re-define responsibilities and make needed changes to correct long-standing issues. In this specific example, I served as the final endorser on the two GEORGE WASHINGTON investigations following the cluster suicides that occurred in early 2022. In this case, the task was to assess the Quality of Service in Shipyard Availabilities.

· This assessment had its roots in taking a closer look at "the day in the life" of a Sailor when their ship is in an extended repair period like GW who was

undergoing a multi-year refueling overhaul at Newport News Shipbuilding.

· Consulting with my JAG team, we developed a strategy to break the investigation into two parts. The first investigation was designed to determine if there was any linkage or connection between the four suicides - knowing that we needed to move quickly to make that determination.

· The second investigation was designed as a holistic review regarding the quality of work and quality of life of all ships in long term maintenance, not just the GW. It required a wider aperture and approach to better understand all the contributing factors that ultimately have a serious impact on our Sailors' quality of service.

· Once we looked at all the contributing factors, we were able to determine many areas requiring immediate improvement and longer-term solutions as well across DOTLMPF for depot availabilities.

· We found fundamental changes to the definition and application of the terms "habitability" and "livability" needed to be refined.

· The GW accountability was challenging as the Navy had been allowing unsatisfactory conditions to exist

at Newport News Shipyard for decades. Issues ranging from parking, to living barges, to food options, to berthing, to Wi-Fi, to manning levels and certainly to overlapping C2 structures once again.

· This was in many ways more complex than the Red Hill fuel spill incidents in that trying to determine what leaders, what stakeholders, and what organizations had the legal responsibility and authority to make needed improvements, obviously including OPNAV and the Secretariat.

· Again, I'll highlight how an understanding of only the legal aspects in this case would have been insufficient to provide me sound legal counsel and recommendations. My Fleet JAG team had to fully embed themselves in all the intricacies of the challenges and requirements for a warship in a multi-year shipyard repair period in order to fully identify all of the facts and how those facts lead to a sound and comprehensive assessment of causality and accountability.

· Armed with this understanding, my Fleet JAG was able to help me craft 42 recommendations that subsumed all other recommendations and perhaps

formed the most important and substantial document I've ever signed in my career.

************* CLOSING *************

· As I bring my comments to a close, I hope that I imparted upon you a realization of the technical expertise you bring to the fight and that being a JAG is a lot more than being "Dr. No" when your boss asks you something. [chuckle]

· Whether it's improving existing command and control authority, revamping existing responsibilities, or advising your CO on the impact of an update to the Rules of Engagement, know your unique skills, while routinely hidden from public fanfare, are an irreplaceable enabler of our Navy to take care of our Sailors and win the next fight.

· Know too, that your community is doubling down on preparing future "Battle-JAGs" to develop, standardize, and implement key capabilities of our JAG Corps through the new position of the Assistant JAG for Education, Training, and Professional Development.

· The timing of these developments couldn't be more relevant. Modern warfare is changing at a remarkable

adapt to these changes and the decision space of high-end, modern combat.

· In our uncertain times today, it is unclear when our nation will call on our Sailors and ask them to go into harm's way. You may soon find yourself on the bridge of a ship, standing right next to your captain who is looking straight at you for advice on the release of combat weaponry.

· Our Navy will need the sage counsel of our "Battle- JAGs", defined by a solution-oriented, holistic approach, able to apply technical expertise to the environmental space in which we are operating, and bring the right answer to ultimately enable mission objectives, in an efficient, ethical, and legally compliant manner.

· Our "Battle-JAGs" must be fluent in all authorities streaming from multiple joint force component commands, integrating them for their commanders, staffs, and subordinate commands.

· They must expertly distill complex Rules of Engagement into digestible briefs, tactical aids, and mission planning inputs to ensure their combat teams understand the threshold for the use of force in complicated self-defense paradigms.

· While executing these high-end combat functions, our "Battle-JAGs" must also efficiently resolve issues of administrative law, military justice, and ethics, in order to enable their commands to remain operationally focused.

· And I'm incredibly proud to have the opportunity to acknowledge the bold action and monumental effort by a "Battle-JAG" here with us today, after her exemplary embodiment of these principles, living and breathing these high standards while in combat operations in the Red Sea. [Nod to CAPT Sutton]

· [CAPT SUTTON will call CDR Paradis front and center for Bronze Star presentation]

*****AWARD PRESENTATION*****

· [CAPT SUTTON will read award while you present the medal and certificate to CDR Paradis]

*****AFTER AWARD APPLAUSE ENDS*****

· And with that, I'd like to use my remaining time to hear directly from you.

· As you approach the microphone, please share your name and command along with your question. Thank you!

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