The Role of Judge Advocates in Prisoner of War and Detention Operations in the U.S. Army: A Short History

Abstract Uniformed lawyers have played important roles in prisoner of war and detainee operations in the U.S. Army. During international armed conflicts like World War II, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War, military lawyers advised on the status and treatment of enemy fighters captured on the battlefield—in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and customary international law. In the last decades of the twentieth century and early years of the twenty-first century, however, U.S. Army involvement in international armed conflicts—and corresponding POW operations—diminished significantly, and was replaced by military operations in non-international conflicts. Since persons captured or detained in non-international operations like Somalia, Haiti, and Afghanistan could not be prisoners of war as a matter of law, Army lawyers had to create procedures governing the status and treatment of detainees. History demonstrates that prisoner of war and detention operations have been a story of hastily planned and quickly implemented procedures. This ad hoc approach is to be expected, however, since the Army itself puts a priority on winning on the battlefield and a lower priority on prisoner and detainee operations.