PACAF receives national award for legal assistance

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Renee Lee
  • Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs
HICKAM AIR FORCE BASE, Hawaii (AFPN) --  A Pacific Air Forces committee designed to increase the legal readiness of PACAF Airmen was recently awarded the Legal Assistance for Military Personnel 2004 Distinguished Service Award.

The award recognizes those who display exceptional achievements and service in support of military legal assistance, exceeding the performance of routine duties to provide legal assistance service over a specified period, said retired Navy Rear Adm. John Jenkins, chair of the standing committee on LAMP.

The team, comprising PACAF headquarters and the 15th Airlift Wing here; the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska; and the Hawaii Air National Guard’s 154th Wing launched PACAF's Legal Readiness Program in 2004 in response to a lack of legal readiness across the command.

In 2002, then-PACAF commander, Gen. William Begert, was concerned that many PACAF Airmen were not legally ready. Some died without having a will or the full amount of life insurance, leaving behind legal disarray among family members.

General Begert directed the PACAF office of the staff judge advocate, as well as his numbered Air Force and wing commanders, to educate PACAF Airmen on the importance of legal readiness. Despite commander's calls and judge advocate offices efforts, legal readiness remained an issue with deployments or sudden temporary duties, often worsening the situation for Airmen and their families.

"Just as the Air Force has always stressed the need to be physically, mentally and operationally ready to deploy at a moment's notice, we needed to focus our attention on legal needs that often require us to obtain or update wills, powers of attorney, or sufficient life insurance," said Gen. Paul V. Hester, PACAF commander.

In 2003, the Legal Readiness Program team was created. Its objective was to achieve 100-percent legal readiness among PACAF Airmen, focusing on educating each Airman on legal responsibilities, providing legal counseling and offering opportunities to meet with an attorney to establish an estate plan.

The team developed a two-phased program. During the first phase, an online tutorial educates Airmen on wills, powers of attorney, living wills, durable powers of attorney and life insurance. The online program determines if an Airman is legally ready. If not, he or she moves onto Phase II -- one-on-one counseling.

The program was first tested here and at Eielson. The command-wide launch resulted in unprecedented levels of effectiveness, as legal readiness numbers increased across the command, officials said.

Today, PACAF is more than 90 percent legally ready, said Master Sgt. Daniel Kazumura, noncommissioned officer in charge of PACAF’s judge advocate international and operational law. This is about a 40-percent jump from two years ago.

There are almost 40,000 users in PACAF, said Sergeant Kazumura, who manages the LRP program.

The Airmen in PACAF’s computer systems squadron played a large role in PACAF's leap in readiness.

"I'm very proud of the team here," said Emilio Javier, program manager and software engineer with the squadron. "I'm very pleased that we can help support the mission in light of people getting deployed; we saw how important this is to make sure that people need to be prepared just in case."

Mr. Javier and fellow software engineer, Jeff Chong, are the communications leaders who created the Web-based program.

"This (award) is evidence of the hard work that was done," said Master Sgt. Toni Patterson, 15th AW law office superintendent.

The PACAF team was the only military organization to earn an award from the Standing Committee on LAMP for 2004.

"This is really a recognition of a lot of hard work," said Col. Eugene Whitaker, PACAF judge advocate. "There are a lot of talented people across PACAF ensuring our Airmen are legally ready to deploy at any time." (Courtesy of Pacific Air Forces)