Ben Crump Winning the - Florida State University College of Law

Military Intelligence
Capt. John Kiel Teaches Law to the
Next Generation of Army Leadership
BY DAVE FIORE
Capt. Kiel in the
classroom with his
West Point students
As he was approaching graduation
from Florida State’s College of
Law, John Kiel knew he needed
practice for upcoming interviews with the
big law fi rms coming to campus through
the law school’s Placement Offi ce. So, he
set up a time to hone his interviewing skills
with a much less likely suitor—a U.S. Army
recruiter.
But as Kiel—now Capt. John Kiel,
law professor at the U.S. Military Academy—discovered,
he learned more from
that encounter than he could have ever
expected.
Kiel said he wanted to get trial experience
right away, so the plan was to get into
the JAG corps, get the experience he wanted
and get out. But it didn’t exactly work out
that way.
His fi rst assignment was to Fort Bragg,
N.C., home of the Army’s special forces and
airborne troops. Immediately upon arrival,
he left for the Army Airborne School at Fort
Benning, where he learned to jump out
of C-17 and C-130 cargo planes. At Fort
Bragg, Kiel served as a claims judge advocate
and prosecutor before being deployed
to Afghanistan for seven months shortly
after the terrorist attacks of September
11, 2001.
Part of his job in Afghanistan was to
consult with the Army’s main planning
group to determine the legality of proposed
military operations. “I was in operational
law in Afghanistan, making sure that our
overriding goals would fi t into our rules of
engagement,” Kiel said. “We had to make
sure that international laws and treaties
were observed. We addressed issues such
as areas to attack and what we could and
couldn’t target. In terms of planning attacks,
the hardest part was trying to tell the
difference between members of the Taliban
and Al Qaeda and regular Afghans.”
He also served in Germany as a criminal
defense lawyer, defending soldiers who got
in trouble in Germany, Kosovo, Iraq and
Afghanistan.
The next phase of his military service
offered a dramatic change of scenery—West
Point, N. Y. At the U.S. Military Academy,
Kiel teaches law as part of a faculty made
up of active-duty soldiers who have a talent
for, and desire to, teach cadets. He teaches
constitutional and military law, and next
year will lead a class in criminal law.
“This is hands-down the best job I have
ever had,” he said.
Kiel said the law classes are required for
the cadets, and the context in which they
are learning makes it quite different from a
law-school setting. “This is not as technical
as a law-school class—we try to help them
grasp the legal principles,” he said. “With
all their other responsibilities, they have
very little time to read.”
Kiel teaches four sections in addition to
serving as an assistant boxing coach for the
academy. The team recently placed third in
the National Collegiate Boxing Association
Championships—with seven All-American
and two national champions.
He visited the College of Law in 2003
to return a fl ag provided by the school as a
sign of support for the troops. It was fl own
in Operation Enduring Freedom on board
an Air Force A-10 fi ghter during an offi cial
mission in Afghanistan.
Kiel said he wanted to get trial experience right away,
so the plan was to get into the JAG corps, get the
experience he wanted and get out. But it didn’t exactly
work out that way.
19
FSU LAW ■ SPRING 2006