JAMES D. WILLEFORD

James has expansive military experience.  He was a Marine Paralegal and Law Office Manager, serving as, among other things, the Chief Paralegal for Task Force 134 (Detainee Operations) in Iraq, which maintained 14,500 active detainee case files simultaneously with only eight paralegals.  He managed seven separate legal administration shops, a prosecution office with a typical docket of 60 trials, and was the Chief Paralegal for the Staff Judge Advocate, II Marine Expeditionary Force, the legal advisor to the Commanding General responsible for all Marine Corps Fores on the East Coast.  As a Drill Instructor and Senior Drill Instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina, and then as a Formal Schools Instructor/Curriculum Developer at the Naval Justice School, James trained nearly 800 young Americans for service in the Marine Corps.  Seventeen years into his paralegal career, he was propelled into the world of Marine Corps Special Operations as a First Sergeant and Sergeant Major, serving as the senior enlisted leader of the following elements:  Company A, Marine Special Operations Advisor Group; Headquarters Company, Marine Special Operations Regiment; a Counterinsurgency Advice and Assistance Team (Afghanistan); 3d Marine Special Operations Battalion (North Carolina); 1st Marine Special Operations Battalion (California); and, Special Operations Task Force 18.3 (Afghanistan).  He also has tours of duty as the senior enlisted leader of Headquarters Battery, 12th Marine Regiment (Artillery); Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 (F-35’s); and Marine Attack Squadron 214 (AV-8B’s).  He has advised 15 commanders as their senior enlisted leader, spent seven years stationed overseas in Okinawa, Japan, served aboard three naval vessels, and has four combat tours to both Iraq (1) and Afghanistan (3).