Anonymous User wrote:@Patrick, I just found out I got picked up for the AF internship (I suppose I was an alternate because I seem to be hearing quite late, but hey I'll certainly not complain!)
It seems the only bases left are "Dover, Whiteman, Eglin, Hurlburt, Ellsworth, F.E. Warren, Holloman, Mountain Home, Fairchild, Kirtland, Maxwell, McConnell, Minot, Offutt, and Vance."
Do you have any advice on choosing among these? I am specifically interested in contracting/acquisitions law if that makes any difference, though I'm not sure how much of that stuff interns get to deal with.
BigBeef:
Congrats on the internship selection!
So obviously some of these bases are in more geographically desirable locations than others - that said, I'm not going to weigh in on geography as that is subjective and not the info you appear to be looking for.
If you are a procurement/contracting/acquisitions guy/gal, Eglin I think is your only real pick. It is the only AFMC base (I think - Kirkland used to be but is now under Global Strike -- that said, I imagine they still have a large contracting operation there) and therefore your best shot at contracts. It is also in a good location (Destin, FL) and basically neighbors with Hurlburt.
All the other bases are actually pretty well rounded in terms of mission and would give you a very good sense of what serving as a JAG would be like. I would cross Maxwell off because it is generally slow and all officer training - you might get the chance to interact with AFJAGS faculty, which would be a plus, but I think the day to day at the 42nd wouldn't be super exciting. Don't go to Vance - Enid, OK is absolutely awful and the base is not worth it.
If I were you, I'd also seriously consider Hurlburt -- it is the home of AFSOC and they do some amazing shit (biased as I am now on my second AFSOC assignment). 1 SOW could lend itself to some truly interesting contracting things given the mission they support (and the money for SOCOM type contracts is almost limitless, so it would be some truly unique stuff). End of the day, you will be fine at any of them. My internship was at Wright-Patterson, great for contracting and awful for justice. I went on to do a whole bunch of justice when on AD just the same. The internship give some some great experiences and that legal office had some amazing military and civilians in it. So while it could be great to dovetail the internship base's mission with your own interests, that is not the end goal of the internship - the full immersion is.
Let me know where you end up if you want - I'm happy to give you some background on the base if I can. It looks like PMs no longer exist under the new ownership, so you can feel free to email at
Illini.JAG@gmail.com
Good luck!