Seeking Justice in Iraq

As an Army judge advocate in Baghdad, Jim Agar ’86 supervised military attorneys with caseloads ranging from traffic accidents to courts martial. “The crucible of a combat environment is a character test,” says Agar. “Ninety-five percent of the soldiers and officers are the cream of the crop, but we had to focus on the other five percent.”

Agar, a lieutenant colonel, also advised commanders on issues such as the legality of specific targets, signed off on reconstruction contracts, and helped restart Iraq’s courts of justice. He says his CC education served him well: “There are so many new problems to be solved that you have to keep your mind open.

“Once when I was inspecting a detention facility, a man who had been held without charges for 10 days asked me if I could get him released to go home to his family and take his engin-eering exams. I told him I’d see what I could do. He then pulled me toward him and kissed me, which is a sign of great respect in Arab culture. I got him released that night. I’ve been shot at, had mortars explode nearby, lost some friends in this conflict, but none of it disturbed me as much as that kiss. This is what it’s all about, seeing that people are treated fairly.”

After his current assignment at the Army’s Command and General Staff College, Agar hopes to be assigned nearer Fort Hood, Texas, where his wife, Elizabeth Ellerbe Agar ’86, continues to support families left behind during deployments while raising the Agars’ daughters, Grace, 12, and Alexandra, 9.