CW5 James A. Carroll
The Current Chief
CW5 James A. Carroll is the current Chief Warrant Officer of the Corps, the 13th CWOC. He took up the post in 2026, succeeding CW5 Tammy E. Richmond, and serves in the Office of The Judge Advocate General (OTJAG) at the Pentagon as senior advisor to The Judge Advocate General on the Legal Administrator cohort.
He leads the cohort as the Army focuses on Large-Scale Combat Operations (LSCO) against peer and near-peer adversaries, in contested, electronically degraded and dispersed environments. His focus is making sure Legal Administrators can sustain the speed and integrity of military justice in those conditions.
Career Background
CW5 Carroll’s career includes operational assignments across major tactical commands, airborne corps and multinational theater headquarters. That experience gave him a first-hand view of how communication blackouts and electronic warfare can disrupt server-dependent law office tools.
Priorities
- Offline-capable legal systems. Developing ruggedized, mobile, distributed legal networks so frontline SJA cells can track military justice data, document operational law decisions and process urgent foreign claims without a continuous connection to central servers.
- Retention and senior-grade readiness. Using targeted retention incentives and technical tracking to close shortages in the senior warrant officer grades, including outreach through the Law Office Managers Course and to personnel board leaders, so capable CW3s are prepared for senior positions.
- Secure use of AI. Advocating for the controlled, secure integration of artificial intelligence in the JAG Corps legal enterprise, and training Legal Administrators to manage AI-assisted analysis of operational law, treaties and rules of engagement.
- Total Force integration. Continuing to align active-duty deployment templates with the U.S. Army Reserve Legal Command and National Guard so every 270A can deploy and operate across all three components.