Chairman, Board of Veterans' Appeals
James Terry serves as Chairman, Board of Veterans’ Appeals. He was confirmed by the Senate in July 2005 for a six-year term. He previously served as Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Regional, Global and Functional Affairs within the Bureau of Legislative Affairs from 2001-2005. After being commissioned in the Marine Corps in 1968, he served as an infantry officer in Viet Nam, as Commanding Officer of a Marine Detachment aboard ship (USS Ticonderoga, CVA-14), and then, after law school at Mercer University in Atlanta, Ga., as a Marine Corps Judge Advocate until his retirement as a Colonel in 1995. His final four years in the Marine Corps were served as Legal Counsel to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Colin Powell. He then accepted a position in the Senior Executive Service in the Department of the Interior, serving first as Deputy Director of the Office of Hearings and Appeals with responsibility for managing the Administrative Law Judge system for the Department and then as a Judge on the Board of Land Appeals, with responsibility for adjudicating offshore oil and gas royalty cases and public lands issues for the Department. In July 2001, he left the Interior Department to accept an appointment in the Department of State. James Terry is a native of East Brookfield, Mass. He graduated from the University of Virginia in 1968, earning his undergraduate degree in geo-chemistry. He later returned to complete a graduate degree. In 1973, he completed his law degree at Mercer University. In 1980 and 1982, respectively, he was awarded the Master of Laws (with highest honors) and the Doctor of Juridical Science degrees in International Law from The George Washington University. His doctoral dissertation addressed Moscow’s misuse of accepted international law norms to further Soviet regime policies. He is the author of more than 25 articles on coercion control and national security law. A volume addressing contemporary issues in the law of armed conflict, The Regulation of International Coercion, was published by the Naval War College Press in 2005. A study in Soviet military intervention in former Warsaw Pact states from 1945 to 1991, and then by the Russian Federation in Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 and 1999 to present was published in 2006. A study entitled Vietnam in Perspective was published by the Naval Law Review in 2007. A study of the right of Habeas Corpus and its application to our internees at Guantanamo was published in January 2008. It reviews the U.S. position with respect to the International Criminal Court. More recently, Chairman Terry completed a comprehensive study of the Article II authority of the President as Commander–in-Chief in conflicts short of war which appeared in the April 2008 issue of the Joint Forces Quarterly Review. Mr. Terry was awarded the State Department Superior Honor Medal, and while in the Marine Corps, the Defense Superior Service Medal, Legion of Merit, Bronze Star Medal with combat V, Purple Heart, Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Meritorious Service Medal (3 awards), Navy Commendation Medal (2 awards), Defense Achievement Medal, and combat action ribbon, among others. Mr. Terry is married to the former Michelle Lambert of Long Beach, Calif. They have two grown daughters, one of whom practices law with Choate, Hall and Stewart, in Boston. May 2008
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