JAG LIFE DIFFERENT THAN TV PORTRAYAL

Attorneys Ken McManaman and Diane Howard couldn't be much fewer, or prouder, in their part-time jobs.

The Cape Girardeau lawyers are two of five in Missouri who serve in the Navy's Judge Advocate General Corps as reservists.

In short, they're JAGs.

But don't confuse their work with the popular Tuesday evening television series about a Naval aviator and a Marine Corps officer who fight terrorists and spies in and out of court, Howard said.

"The life is really not that exciting," said Howard, who spends most of her JAG service now writing wills, powers of attorney and other legal documents for soldiers.

McManaman came into his partially military career in spite of his upbringing, he said. His father's work as an Air Force brigadier general showed him all he thought he needed to know about the military.

"My thinking was I've already spent 20 years in the service," McManaman said. "I don't want to do this again."

A low draft lottery number changed his thinking in the late 1960s. He joined the Navy reserves in college with the intention of attending Officers Candidate School so that if he had to go to Vietnam, at least he'd be an officer.

McManaman eventually attended law school at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and earned a active duty deferment. He got more schooling after graduating from the Naval Justice School in Newport, R.I. McManaman got a better legal education in the Navy, he said.

"When you leave law school, you know the black letter law, but not how it's applied," he said.

McManaman got his first assignment as a defense attorney, then chief prosecutor, at a Naval air station in Pensacola, Fla., in 1975.

"In Pensacola I handled everything except a capital murder case," he said. "Back then we had a lot of unauthorized leaves to prosecute, because it was just after Vietnam."

By 1978, McManaman chose to leave the Navy for a private law practice in Cape Girardeau. But he enlisted in the Naval reserves so as not to lose touch with the military.

Diane Howard's path into Navy law came through her husband. Two weeks after she graduated with a law degree from St. Louis University in 1979, her husband enlisted.

When she followed him to Norfolk, Va., with their infant son, Howard decided she would still find a way to use her legal education. She applied with the FBI and was assigned to attend training for special agents at Quantico, Va., but then President Ronald Reagan imposed a one-year federal hiring freeze.

Howard didn't want to wait, so she inquired about JAG Corps. A week later, she enlisted.

Loved the Navy life

In her first three years as a military prosecutor in Norfolk, Howard said she handled nearly 300 court cases. In less than a year and a half, she prosecuted 11 felony jury trials, she said.

Even though she and her husband loved Navy life, they left active duty and returned to Cape Girardeau to care for Howard's ailing father.

"We left thinking we'd probably go back to Virginia, but that's going on 17 years now," said Howard, who continued afterward as a JAG lawyer in the reserves.

In the past five years, McManaman has been part of a more elite group of JAG reservists. He is one of 16 nationally who serves his country as a judge. Only three of those, including McManaman, is qualified to preside over the military's highest court -- a general court-martial.

The position allows wide travel opportunities. Last summer, McManaman was in Germany, Spain and Italy for the Navy. This summer, he goes to Japan.

"It's not much of a vacation," he said.

One of the cases he heard involved a soldier who was selling the drug ecstasy around his base in Stuttgart, Germany, while stealing federal money by filing false claims. McManaman sentenced him to 15 years in prison plus a $40,000 fine.

The harshest sentence he has given so far is 25 years in another drug case.

Nevertheless, military courts favor the defendants, McManaman said.

Police only read a civilian Miranda rights after an arrest, but the military requires that a soldier be made aware of his rights as soon as he becomes a criminal suspect.

McManaman prefers the military's approach to defendants' rights.

"This doesn't hamper getting justice done," McManaman said.

Adventure, if not glamor

Although JAGs don't live the glamorous life portrayed on television, they can find adventure, McManaman said. They may be assigned to special operations units.

"They don't put you in harm's way, but you could go with a unit and earn your parachute wings or see what a SEAL unit is doing," he said.

Although Howard has conducted trials at sea on aircraft carriers, most of her JAG reserve years have involved assisting with legal services in St. Louis and conducting appellate reviews in Washington, D.C. This could change by October, when three new reserve judges are appointed to replace McManaman and two colleagues. Howard has applied, and could take McManaman's place.

Regardless of a possible judgeship, the most rewarding part of Howard's legal work is giving legal advice to those in need. She recalled how many sought her counsel on wills, pending divorces and traffic tickets when she served in a mobilization group in St. Louis to assist personnel heading into the Gulf War.

"It felt very good to be able to give those sailors some peace of mind before going overseas," Howard said. "That's the best part of this job -- being able to help people."