{"id":231775,"date":"2024-07-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=231775"},"modified":"2024-07-22T12:42:09","modified_gmt":"2024-07-22T12:42:09","slug":"building-bridges-for-the-u-s-army","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/?p=231775","title":{"rendered":"Building Bridges for the U.S. Army"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n The Bavarian Secretary of Justice, Georg Eisenreich, presented the Justizmedaille (Justice medal) to two distinguished members of the 7th Army Training Command\u2019s (7ATC) office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA): Mechthild Benkert, right, Chief of Host Nation Law, and Bradley Huestis, left, Senior Civilian Attorney and Chief of Client Services during a ceremony in Munich, Germany, June 17, 2024. (Courtesy Photo)
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GRAFENWOEHR, Germany \u2013 The Bavarian Secretary of Justice, Georg Eisenreich, presented the Justizmedaille (Justice medal) to two distinguished members of the 7th Army Training Command\u2019s (7ATC) office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA): Mechthild Benkert, Chief of Host Nation Law, and Bradley Huestis, Senior Civilian Attorney and Chief of Client Services during a ceremony in Munich, Germany, June 17, 2024.<\/p>\n

The ceremony recognized 14 recipients from across Bavaria for their exceptional contributions in advancing outstanding projects and promoting the rule of law. \u201cAll of you have, in very different areas, dedicated yourselves above and beyond the call of duty to our justice system, the rule of law, and our society,\u201d said Eisenreich.<\/p>\n

Benkert, a German national has been with the U.S. Army since 1996. As the Senior Legal Advisor, she provides expertise on German law to all sections within the 7ATC footprint and overseas outreach programs aimed at familiarizing German lawyers with the U.S. legal system. Reflecting on her career, Benkert said, \u201cHad you told me while I was in law school that I would work for the Americans, I would have said, \u2018Yeah, right,\u2019 but this really fell into place.<\/p>\n

Benkert\u2019s career with the U.S. Army began as a legal assistance attorney with the 1st Infantry Division (1ID) in Wuerzburg, Germany. Following 1ID’s departure from Germany, she joined the 7ATC (then called 7th Army Joint Multinational Training Command) in Grafenwoehr in 2008. \u201cAmericans are much more diverse than Germans, so I work with a lot of people with really different backgrounds, and that’s totally fascinating to me,\u201d she remarked.<\/p>\n

Benkert has been instrumental in training young lawyers in Bavaria for decades. She is the contact person for the Bavaria-wide event, “Introduction to U.S. American Law,” which allows trainee lawyers to observe U.S. military court hearings. “We go out every year in November to five locations in Bavaria and we do one day of teaching to those between first and second state examinations,” she explained. This program provides aspiring German lawyers with their first exposure to the American legal system, fostering connections between legal traditions.<\/p>\n

Since 2017, Benkert has also coordinated the participation of U.S. Army lawyers in the Long Night of Science. This event, held in the historic Hall 600 of the Nuremberg Palace of Justice, features criminal trials under both German and American law. Its motto, \u201cTwo systems, one aim: Justice,\u201d highlights the comparative insights it offers to the public.<\/p>\n

Huestis has played a pivotal role in the Long Night of Science, working alongside the Nuremberg Higher Regional Court, Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, and the Memorium Nuremberg Trials. \u201cHuestis explained what people were looking at on the American side of the court process,\u201d said Benkert. \u201cHe was our subject-matter expert for the court-martial process.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 7ATC’s OSJA mission is to deliver precise, principled, and prompt legal support to the 7ATC and associated units, including Soldiers, civilians, family members, and retirees. Their services encompass legal assistance, claims for damaged automobiles, and immigration\/naturalization information.<\/p>\n

Reflecting on the work that she has done, Benkert shared, “What I find interesting [about my job] is that I learn something new every day.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that’s the fun of my job,” Benkert concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bavarian Secretary of Justice, Georg Eisenreich, presented the Justizmedaille (Justice medal) to two distinguished members of the 7th Army Training Command\u2019s (7ATC) office of the Staff Judge Advocate (OSJA): Mechthild Benkert, right, Chief of Host Nation Law, and Bradley Huestis, left, Senior Civilian Attorney and Chief of Client Services during a ceremony in Munich, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":231777,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231775","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=231775"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231775\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":231778,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231775\/revisions\/231778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/231777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=231775"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=231775"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adn.monetizemail.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=231775"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}