Measure of Men

**"Measure of Men"** (sometimes listed as "The Measure of Men") is an episode of *JAG* that first aired on October 9, 2001. Directed by Bradford May. Written by Dana Coen.

## *TV Guide* blurb

As Harm defends a Marine Major accused of causing a negligent homicide during a training exercise that occurred in bad weather, Mac who is prosecuting must confront the feelings she's running from.

## Dramatis personae

* Catherine Bell as Sarah MacKenzie, lieutenant colonel in the U. S. Marine Corps, judge advocate
* David James Elliott as Harmon Rabb Jr., commander in the U. S. Navy, judge advocate
* John M. Jackson as Albert Jethro Chegwidden, admiral in the U. S. Navy, judge advocate general of the Navy
* Patrick Labyorteaux as Bud Roberts Jr., lieutenant in the U. S. Navy, judge advocate

### Recurring

* Chuck Carrington as Jason Tiner, petty officer in the U. S. Navy
* Sam Hennings as Captain Huddleston
* Scott Lawrence as Sturgis Turner, commander in the U. S. Navy, judge advocate
* Karri Turner as Harriet Sims, lieutenant in the U. S. Navy
* Randy Vasquez as Victor Galindez, gunnery sergeant in the U. S. Marine Corps
* Scott Williamson as Larry Kaliski, civilian lawyer

### Guest

* James Black as Marine Captain Tripp
* June Christopher as the senior member of the court-martial panel
* Art Chudabala as Sergeant Batacan
* Jeff Corbett as Lt. Gladden
* Louis Crugnali as Corporal Bardu
* Ashley Eckstein as Lisa Rossbach
* Jim Fitzpatrick as Warren Lasley, major in the U. S. Marine Corps
* Nicholas Guilak as Lt. Shastri
* Kerrie Keane as Meryl Rossbach, captain in the U. S. Marine Corps
* Lee Ryan as Commander Carew

## Plot

During a joint exercise with the Indian military off the Andaman Islands, a U. S. Marine dies.

June 20, 2001. The skipper of the USS Guadalcanal, Captain Huddleston, tells Lt. Colonel MacKenzie she can begin and end her investigation with Major Lasley. Gunnery Sergeant Galindez will assist Mac in her investigation.

Mac has not been investigating for long when Huddleston announces he's charging Lasley with negligent homicide and dereliction of duty in a special court-martial, despite Mac's protestations that a special court-martial offers limited punitive options.

Mac prosecutes, Commander Rabb is flown in to defend. Rabb tries to talk to Mac about their relationship, but talk of the case prevents that. Lasley hires civilian attorney Larry Kaliski on the basis of the fact that Kaliski has previously beat Mac in court. Rabb asks Lasley if he's fired, but Kaliski won't have that.

Kaliski runs his strategy by Rabb: present Lasley as an officer who prepares his men well for all sorts of battle contingencies. Rabb immediately says that's a losing strategy. Rabb's strategy is to pinpoint the actual cause of the Marine's death, but Kaliski thinks that would look like Lasley's trying to shift blame. Kaliski first chairs.

After Galindez learns from Marine Captain Tripp that Lasley has a reputation as a "Teflon man", Mac puts Tripp on the stand and gets him to admit that Lasley's men won't let Lasley take the fall for anything.

Rabb breaks from Kaliski, who in recess angrily reminds Rabb who is first chair. This prompts Rabb to take a boat with one of Lasley's men who was in the exercise. Upon encountering a sandbar in calm water, they figure out the unfortunate chain of events that led to his comrade's death: the large map was reduced in the photocopying so that the sandbar was not visible; Huddleston delayed the exercise on account of the rough weather; when the exercise took place, the tide had risen and the chemical markers on the beach were not visible, so the Marines could not properly line up and thus they encountered the sandbar, flipping the boat and causing one of them to die.

Huddleston admits he bears some responsibility for that death. On cross Mac asks about what would have happened in actual combat conditions.

With Kaliski's approval, Rabb asks Lasley to get on the stand to admit to his share of responsibility for the tragedy. Lasley refuses, reasoning that the court-martial panel members hate him and will take the opportunity to stick it to him. Therefore, the defense rests.

The members find Lasley not guilty of negligent homicide but guilty of dereliction of duty.

## Inspection hits

Mac is not wearing her silver oak leaves on her camouflage uniform when talking to Captain Huddleston about the limitations of a special court-martial. But she does wear them when first talking to Rabb and Lasley even though presumably she's wearing the same women's camouflage uniform.