Kudos to a REAL JAG!

[jaglady]

I'd just like to share with everyone that Gill Beck, my husband's former commander, was just recently promoted to Brigadier General. There are only two other generals in the JAG field Armywide. This is quite an honor, since he was handpicked by the U.S. Senate for this.
Gill was then officially appointed as a Army Court of Criminal Appeals judge.
We went to DC and witnessed both ceremonies. Let me know if you'd like for me to post some pictures.
It ends up I used him as a model for some of my fanfic stories. Those of you who have read "Stealing Thunder" on another board, he was the model for Widowmaker. He was also the model for Bill Schwender, the murdered judge in "A Monster's Ball." He's not a pilot, but he does have airborne experience (or, as we say, jumping out of perfectly good airplanes!).

[mirium]

Congrats to Brigadier General Beck! Out of curiosity, will the attorneys in court address him as General and Sir, or Judge and Your Honor? (Does the Military or the Appeals Court aspect matter more?)

Pictures would be welcome! Any chance you could post the fan fics you mentioned here (assuming they're within the PG-13 guidelines, of course )? We're asking authors to put some extra info at the beginning of each of their stories -- the details are in the Writers' Corner, in the Fan Fic FAQs, which is at www.primetimecrime.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=tipstricks&action=display&thread=5 -- feel free to include a comment about the character being partly based on a Real Person. (The extra info is to help readers decide whether they want to read the story.) There's a good example of the format at www.primetimecrime.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=csifanfic&action=display&thread=6 , or ask sarryb if you have questions! (and thanks to luf100 for being such a good example!)

[jaglady]

Sure, my pleasure, Mirium. It's good to have things spelled out rather than to guess and get everybody upset. I figured out long ago that I can't read minds and gave up trying.

That's a good question. Being close to him and his wife, I just call him "Gill." Hubby said that when he's actually on the bench, then he would be addressed as "Judge" or "Your Honor". In a regular military capacity, he'd be addressed as "Sir" or "General."

I do want to clear one thing up, though. Modeling a character after someone and basing a character on someone are two different things. When I "fleshed out" some of my characters, I looked at Gill and said, "Okay. Tall, big-boned, short black hair with gray eyes." Gill is nothing like my characters, not to mention the legal implications. Don't worry; I don't want to get anyone into trouble.

Incidentally, I told him that I did use him as a model, and he was flattered.

Pictures coming soon.