Having enlisted in the US Army back in 1994 at the age of 33, Captain Lisa Bloom - a licensed and practicing attorney living in Iowa at the time - later became a special agent in the Criminal Investigation Division and, after graduating from the JAG Officer Basic Course in 2000, received her commission. By January 2005, she was serving as trial counsel for Colonel Edward Cardon's 4th Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, as the unit deployed to the central and southern Baghdad area of operations in Iraq; and then midway through her yearlong tour, she assumed the role of brigade judge advocate - essentially the senior legal advisor to the brigade commander. In this interview, Bloom reflects on the full range of legal assistance she provided Colonel Cardon. "He would expect me to take a position and argue against it so he could see the holes in the thought process," she explained, "whether it was information operations, shaping the population or responding to an incident. I needed to be available to advise the senior commander, to think outside the box, develop the skills to look at the situation and be able to give the pros and cons." Among the most important issues were detainee operations and rules of engagement, subjects Bloom discusses in great detail. She talks about the legal training she provided not only to US soldiers in the field - on such matters as rules of evidence and crime scene preservation - but also to the Iraqi units that 4th Brigade was partnered with, focusing, with the former, most strongly on proper treatment of detainees. In addition, Bloom speaks to her support of the brigade commander's governance line of operation and the leading role she played in the execution of the Foreign Claims Act; expresses her views on the Iraqi legal system and attendant concerns that cases involving attacks on US and coalition forces would be properly adjudicated in Iraqi courts; and also comments at length on the conduct of Article 15-6 investigations, which she considers "one of the best tools the commander can have in his kit" that can be "used as a shield just as well as a hammer." Bloom offers a wealth of advice to other brigade judge advocates who might find themselves in similar positions and, additionally, reflects on her own challenges being the lone captain (in a major's position) on the commander's special staff. "In the beginning," she said, "people had trouble seeing past my captain's bars and yet sometimes my job required that I make certain things clear."

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