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- [Female Voiceover] Do you, Colonel Lee Thaggard,

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swear on earth that you will faithfully

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and impartially perform, or to your conscience,

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to the laws and regulations provided

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to the powers of the courtroom

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all of the duties incumbent upon a U.S. military judge

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of this court, so help me God.

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- I do.

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^- Again, this position is great for the Mississipi Guard,

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^both on the air and the army side,

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^because it now gives the guard the flexibility

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to handle criminal offenses in-house

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that otherwise might go unaddressed.

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- Please join me in welcoming and congratulating

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the newest military judge,

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this is the National Guard.

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(attendees applauding)

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- Not every state has a judge of this level,

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^so Mississippi has been selected for this program.

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^What it does is it provides us

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a level of coverage for our soldiers.

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- He had a line officer in an aviation unit,

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had line officer command experience,

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has had combat deployment,

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has had substantial experiences in JAG over the year,

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very highly educated on the civilian side,

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and an excellent reputation as a civilian lawyer

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as well as a judge advocate, and it was a natural fit.

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^- I'm honored and humbled to have been selected

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^as the military trial judge

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^for the Mississippi National Guard.

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I'll serve with professionalism, integrity, and fairness,

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and I'll apply the law to the facts as they're presented

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in the cases that are before me.

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- Now that we have a judge for the first time in decades

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and have the ability to handle these more serious offenses,

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whereas before we didn't,

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so we either had to address them administratively,

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with non-judicial punishment,

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or try to get the civilians to handle it,

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he is going to see, you know,

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it's impossible to say what the number would be.

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He's gonna be busy. He's gonna be busy.