FORT LEONARD WOOD— A Soldier with deep roots in the local community was recently promoted to the top legal position in the Missouri National Guard.
Lt. Col. David Lowe, the command judge advocate for the 35th Engineer Brigade on post for the past 10 years, has accepted the state judge advocate position at Guard headquarters in Jefferson City.
“It is certainly an honor and a privilege after serving almost 20 years, first on active duty and the last 12 in the Missouri Guard,” Lowe said of his promotion.
In his former position, Lowe worked with the commander and command group of the 35th Engineer Brigade, as well as the unit’s subordinate commands, as a legal advisor. Now Lowe, who lives south of Dixon, will take on that role for the entire state.
“I will be the principal legal advisor for the adjutant general of Missouri, as well as his primary staff and the command group at state headquarters,” Lowe said. “I’ve come to the point where I can advise the adjutant general and help him through any legal issues that may arise in his duties. I’ll help shape legal policy and help him guide the Army National Guard forces that we have here in the state.”
Lowe, who becomes promotable in rank with the new position, will be responsible for about 18 Guard lawyers. He said his goal in the position is to continue the success of his predecessor and build upon it.
“As a state judge advocate, I want to bring the utmost integrity, positive approach and stalwart work ethic to the position,” he said. “Being the top judge advocate in the state requires a high degree of ethical conduct and professional standards.
“I want to take the things that I stand for, which are to have the highest morals, integrity and work ethic, and employ those as a part of my efforts to provide the adjutant general and his command group with the advice and counsel they need,” he continued. “That’s going to be a goal of mine, to make sure I set the right tone.”
Know-how and his deployment to Iraq from June 2007 to June 2008 with the 35th Engineer Brigade were essential to his appointment to the job, said Brig. Gen. Stephen Danner, adjutant general of the Missouri National Guard.
“Lt. Col. Lowe is uniquely qualified to serve as state judge advocate general with his military and civilian law experience,” Danner said. “His deployment to Iraq as a brigade judge advocate general makes him better able to meet the needs of the Missouri National Guard.”
Lowe said being in the Guard has given him a wealth of knowledge.
“I’ve got quite a bit of active-duty experience between my Guard deployment and my prior active-duty service,” he said. “That has given me a broad range of experience that has helped put me in a position to be selected. The job that I’ve had the last 10 years in the Missouri Guard has been a help— It’s an important position,” he said.
“With the deployment, I’ve had a well-rounded experience with so many troops being deployed on a regular basis, to understand the issues facing those troops and what they’ll see in a combat theater in Iraq or Afghanistan,” he said.
During his tenure with the 35th, Lowe said one of the highlights has been helping Soldiers with legal matters as they prepare for deployment.
“Helping their families be prepared for those deployments in a variety of ways that we can, as Judge Advocate General officers, can support,” Lowe said. “That can be anything from preparation of wills, powers of attorney, review of legal documents and other matters that may come up. It gives me great satisfaction knowing that we can make a difference in helping them be prepared to handle the adversity of going into a combat zone and leaving their family for a year or more.”
An additional highlight for Lowe was his work during deployment as he helped teach Soldiers about rules of engagement and law of war issues.
“We were able to support our command in a variety of ways and ensure the mission was completed,” he said. “We had a variety of construction missions, as well as the clearing of roadside bombs that we engaged in.”
Lowe is supported in his military career by his wife, Kimberly, and their three children, Grace, 20, Sara, 15, and Jonathan, 12.
He is a 1982 graduate of Lewisville High School in Lewisville, Texas.
On May 18, 1996, Lowe was commissioned as second lieutenant through the Reserve Officer Training Corps, upon his graduation with magna cum laude honors from College of the Ozarks in Clarksville, Ark., with a bachelor’s of science degree.
Lowe deferred his commitment to the Army for three years as he completed law school at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. Upon graduation in May of 1989, he was admitted to practice law in Arkansas and later entered into active duty in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps of the United States Army in 1990. Lowe remained on active duty for more than seven years, the last three at Fort Leonard Wood, and in 1996, he was admitted to practice law in Missouri.
In June of 1997, he transitioned into the State Judge Advocate’s Office of the Missouri National Guard and joined his wife, Kimberly, as co-owner in their own private law practice on the square in Waynesville.
The practice, which Kimberly started in 1995, became Lowe & Lowe, L.L.C., and has represented several local civic and business organizations.
Lowe’s military decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal and National Defense Service Medal with Bronze Star.
During his time working for the Army at Fort Leonard Wood since 1994, Lowe and his family have embraced the community as home.
“We really loved the area,” Lowe said.
“Very quickly we saw that we liked this area of the country – we loved the Ozarks and the natural beauty and aesthetics of the area,” Lowe said. “It’s just a wonderful place to live with a quality of life that we’ve really enjoyed in raising our family. With the opportunity to have our own law practice and work for ourselves and have the military connection here, it just seemed like a natural fit to us.”
Lowe & Lowe, L.L.C. is a member of the Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce, the Committee of Fifty and the Armed Forces YMCA.
Personally, Lowe has several civic affiliations. He was on the Waynesville-St. Robert Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors from March 2000 to June 2006 and served as president for two years starting in June 2002. He now serves as a chamber ambassador.
Lowe has been a member of the Pulaski County Bar Association since 1997 and he served as the President of the Pulaski County Bar Association from 2004 to 2006.
He has served as a Vice-Chairman of the Missouri Bar Association’s Military Law Committee since 2007.
Since 2005, Lowe has served as a member of the Pulaski County Rotary Club and the Pulaski County Salvation Army’s Board of Directors, where he was the honorary chairperson for its Tree of Lights Campaign in 2004.
Lowe also has been active in the local athletics scene for the last eight years as a youth soccer, baseball and basketball coach, while his business has sponsored Pulaski County sports programs since 2001.
“That’s been a passion of mine,” Lowe said.
From 2004 to 2006, he was the head coach of the Maranatha Baptist Academy high school basketball team in St. Robert.
One of Lowe’s more satisfying achievements in community sports has been becoming a charter board member and vice president of the Pulaski United Futbol Club, the first club soccer program in the county.
With his status as a traditional Guard Soldier not changing, other than that he’ll drill in Jefferson City instead of at post, Lowe will continue to live and work in the Fort Leonard Wood area.
“I really don’t see where it’s going to change a lot, other than that there will be some additional demands and expectations of the job,” Lowe said of his active life.