从很小的时候起，Lt. 创. Charles Plummer, L ’93, knew that he wanted to do something that was bigger than himself. And, like any successful lawyer or military leader, he was always preparing for his next move.
今天, Plummer serves as The Judge Advocate 创eral (TJAG) of the United States Air Force and Space Force, where he leads the Judge Advocate 创eral’s (JAG) Corps. 他说，他最初并没有追求法律职业. 毕业于纽约州立大学, Brockport, he earned his undergraduate degree in criminal justice with a minor in political science. “I thought I was going to be a New York State Trooper,他说 before he started considering a role with the FBI following internships with the Rochester Public Defender’s Office and the Rochester Police Department.
“I thought law school would further my chances with the FBI,” the Syracuse native recalls. 申请法学院的时候, 他的父母搬到了辛辛那提, so he applied to universities in both New York and Ohio.
Plummer says he researched schools and was drawn to 威尼斯人平台法学院 for its high bar exam passage rate. 他从未后悔过这个决定.
“资本 holds a special part in my heart,他说. “However you define success, 资本 played a huge part in that. I don’t think I’d be here without the fantastic professors I had that shaped me and made me as successful as I’ve been.”
Plummer’s Cap法律 diploma proudly hangs on the wall of his office in the Pentagon. But that’s not the only remembrance he carries with him. He stills keeps in touch with a number of his fellow law school students.
“The students – my classmates – as well as the faculty members made it special,他谈到自己在哥伦布的时光时说. “There was a community – a camaraderie – and I have fond memories.”
他赞扬了许多教员, 包括前临时院长布莱恩·弗里曼, Jean Mortland名誉教授, Professor Michael Distelhorst and Professor Emeritus Stan Darling, 为他未来的角色做准备. 他说:“所有这些都奠定了基础。. “我还留着资本公司威尼斯人平台我的绿马甲.”
作为TJAG, Plummer serves as legal adviser to the Secretary of the Air Force, 空军参谋长, 太空作战部长, and all officers and agencies of the Department of the Air Force. 除了, 他监督着超过2个,200名法官辩护律师, 350名民事律师, 1,400名律师助理和500名文职雇员.
“资本 really laid the foundation for those basic skills of research, 批判性思维, 分析性思维,他说. Plummer emphasizes that he applies what he learned at 资本 every day. The focus on foundational skills served him well in every job he has had and he has made it a focus item for the entire Corps, starting with the students at the Air Force Judge Advocate 创eral’s School.
“I always wanted to be a part of something bigger than myself,普卢默说。, who also holds a Master of 法律s degree from Syracuse University, 除了无数的军事学位. “法律允许我这样做.”
想想他的家族史, Plummer says he always intended to serve his country and believes his family’s history likely played a role in that for the self-described “Upstate New York blue-collar boy.”
On his father’s side, one of his direct relatives was in the 121st 参加南北战争的纽约志愿军. Plummer still has his discharge papers and battle diary.
在他母亲那边, his great-grandfather immigrated from Italy where he had served in the Italian Navy, 他的外祖父曾在美国服役.S. 二战和朝鲜战争期间的海军.
一个叔叔是越战时期的海军陆战队员. Plummer describes a photo where he was just a toddler seeing his uncle leave from the Greyhound bus station in Syracuse. He admits that military service is something that was probably long ingrained in him.
Plummer’s career has taken him all over the country and around the world. He entered the Air Force by direct appointment in September 1995. 他曾担任3年的工作人员法官辩护人rd Air Expeditionary Group at Kwang Ju Air Base in South Korea and as the Staff Judge Advocate to a Joint Special Operations Task Force in Jordan.
While he says he has enjoyed every assignment he has been given, he acknowledges that his time as a Deputy Legal Counsel in the Office of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for Admiral Michael Mullen from 2008 to 2010 was among the most memorable.
“每天, I was working on something ripped from the headlines, 还有很多机密的东西, 太,他说. “My portfolio there spanned every aspect from homeland defense, 到温哥华奥运会的应急计划, 海地地震, 废除“不问不说”政策, to ballistic missile defense from Iran and North Korea.”
虽然他被授予了很高的荣誉, 包括获得杰出服务奖章, 两个橡树叶簇勋章, 国防功勋奖章, Meritorious Service Medal with three oak leaf clusters, 以及一枚航空航天嘉奖奖章, Plummer doesn’t hesitate when asked which achievement makes him the proudest.
作为第一代大学毕业生, he says it is “the combination of graduation from Brockport and graduation from 资本, 同时通过纽约律师资格考试. Those three things my family is most proud of,他说.
And while he admits he was “ecstactic” when he was promoted to Colonel, let alone Lt. 将军，普卢默依然谦逊. “I’m still kind of the same blue-collar kid I was at 资本.”
In the JAG Corps, he says, opportunities for lawyers abound. “We do a lot of mentoring and career counseling and you’ve got to self-assess and know yourself,普卢默说. “But given all the areas of law in which we work – military justice, 国际法, 政府合约及收购, 劳动法, 环境法律, even complicated questions of constitutional and administrative law – there are a variety of paths you can take in the JAG Corps. But it’s part and parcel of the grander scheme: serving a cause and being bigger than yourself.”
美国空军官方简介: http://www.af.mil/About-Us/Biographies/Display/Article/964808/charles-l-plummer/