One in a series honoring the Exchange’s 131 years of family serving family
Who he is: Daniel Choi, Associate General Counsel, Office of the General Counsel, HQ
Years with the Exchange: Daniel marked 10 years as a civilian associate in June, but worked two previous years as an Army Judge Advocate General (JAG) officer assigned to the Exchange.
“I was the last active-duty JAG that the Exchange General Counsel’s Office had, because when I turned civilian from active duty, we didn’t have any more JAGs come on,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s a claim to fame, but I was the last JAG in uniform at AAFES.”
What he does: Daniel works in the Office of the General Counsel’s General Law Branch division, specializing in government ethics, torts and claims, loss prevention, Freedom of Information Act and privacy issues, debt collection and more. He has written several columns on Exchange Ethics for the Exchange Post.
How he became interested in law: A Los Angeles native, Daniel attended the University of California, Los Angeles, graduating bachelor degrees in English and Asian-American Studies in 2002. But a legal career had always been part of family talk.
“When I was growing up, my dad always pushed me to be a lawyer,” Daniel said. “It wasn’t as if I was super-interested in law. It was more like, ‘That could be a potential career.’ But after I graduated college, I thought, ‘Maybe that’s not the path.’
“But then after a few years in the workforce and seeing what’s out there, I realized that law might be a good option. So that’s how I ended up in law school. It was really practical—like ‘Maybe I might be OK with this, so let’s give it a shot.’”
How that led to a military career: “When I went into law school, I had no idea that this would be the path I would take. It was only after my second year in law school, when I got an internship with the JAG Corps summer program, that I seriously began to think about the military.”
After he finished his third year of law school, he was directly commissioned as a First Lieutenant in the Army JAG Corps in 2009.
You can handle the truth: Although there was a TV series called “JAG” from 1995 to 2005, Daniel said the 1992 movie “A Few Good Men” is a good, albeit grossly exaggerated, illustration of what a JAG officer might do. “It came out before I went to law school, but after I joined the JAG Corps, that was the example I would use most often when people asked, ‘What does a JAG officer do?’”
Memories of Exchange support: Daniel’s JAG assignments included Camp Humphreys (now USAG Humphreys) and Yongsan Garrison, both in Korea, as well as Presidio of Monterey (POM) in California.
“My fondest memory of the Exchange while in Korea was that it was a lifeline back to the States. It’s like a piece of home right there on post. You can get stuff there that you can’t get in the Korean economy—Doritos, Cheetos, things like that. It felt like going home every time I went to the food court. Popeyes actually tastes like Popeyes. You’re thinking, ‘Oh, yeah, this is what it tases like.’ Because even though Korea has all those things, there’s something just a little different.
“I would go to the PX and see all the brands that were familiar to me. It’s not as much of a lifeline as it is for troops serving downrange, but being in a foreign country, it was pretty cool to have that. I remember going to the furniture store and getting stuff from there, things that you would have a hard time buying outside the base. With the Exchange, it was all right there.”
How he joined the Exchange: When Daniel was about to PCS from POM, he got the call for his next assignment and was given the opportunity to come to Exchange HQ. The prospect of living in a large city and working in a corporate legal office setting for a retail organization appealed to him.
“It gave me the opportunity to work on issues that are typical of a retail general counsel’s office. It was novel—in the JAG Corps, you’re never going to touch anything close to what we touch in the Exchange General Counsel office. When it was offered, I pretty much jumped at it. I said, ‘Send me there. I want to try that out.”
Why he stayed as a civilian: “It was an easy decision because I loved what I was doing. I pretty much knew at that point that this is where I was going to put down roots. I love the people I work with. The work is interesting. And at the time, I was ready to take off my active-duty hat and become a civilian, so the stars aligned to where on a Friday, I processed out of the Army at Fort Hood, and then on Monday I came back to HQ in civilian clothes. My title didn’t change, my email didn’t change, it was seamless. I knew during the two active-duty years that I worked here that this was where I wanted to make my career.”
The coolest part of his job: “It’s helping GMs out in the field, because I know that they’re at the tip of the spear. A lot of times they’ll reach out with interesting and novel questions and they need an answer. So it’s being able to get them the answer that they need from a legal perspective, that helps them continue with the mission, because they’re at the forefront. I get a lot of joy out of that.”
What ‘family serving family’ means to him: “Ever since I came to the Exchange, I’ve really felt that ‘family’ aspect. It’s not just a job. The Exchange leadership takes care of associates because they know that we are the ones taking care of the military family. Having been part of that family, using the services of the Exchange when I needed them overseas, I know it’s really a good feeling. No one else in the world does what we do. We’re doing it for those service members who are putting their lives on the line for the country. And being able to help them, I think that’s really special.”
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