Lieutenant Colonel Colby C. Vokey,
U.S. Marine Corps
Lieutenant Colonel Vokey is currently serving as the Regional Defense Counsel, Western Region, with his office located at Camp Pendleton, California.
Lieutenant Colonel Vokey was born in Dallas, Texas in 1965. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in political science from Texas A&M University in 1987. After being commissioned in December of 1987, he then attended The Basic School in Quantico, Virginia and the U.S. Army Field Artillery School in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, graduating with honors from both schools. In 1988, he received orders to the 12th Marine Regiment in Okinawa, Japan. He was assigned to 4th Battalion, 12th Marines, serving as the Battalion Assistant Operations Officer, Adjutant, and Fire Direction Officer for Battery K. First Lieutenant Vokey was next assigned to Battery L, 4th Battalion, 12th Marine Regiment, where he served as Battery L’s Executive Officer in combat operations in Saudi Arabia and Kuwait during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
In July 1991, after returning to Okinawa, he was assigned to work on the Commanding General’s staff at 3d Marine Division. In April 1992, he transferred to Dallas, Texas for duty with the Inspector-Instructor Staff, 14th Marine Regiment. Promoted to Captain in September 1992, he was soon posted as the Inspector-Instructor of Headquarters Battery, 14th Marines. After being selected for the Law Education Program, Captain Vokey began law school in 1995 at the University of North Dakota. He was promoted to Major in October of 1997. He received his Juris Doctor with Distinction in May 1998 and subsequently attended Naval Justice School in Newport Rhode Island.
Major Vokey was then assigned to the Legal Services Support Section, 1st Force Service Support Group, Camp Pendleton, California. He served as Defense Counsel, Senior Defense Counsel, and Officer in Charge of Legal Service Support Teams D and E. In 2002, Major Vokey was selected to attend the Graduate Course at The Judge Advocate General’s School of the Army in Charlottesville, Virginia. He received his Master Of Laws degree with a Criminal Law Specialty from that school in May 2003. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in October 2003. Lieutenant Colonel Vokey, as both a prosecutor and defense counsel, has tried hundreds of military courts-martial and other cases. These cases include those with charges of murder, murder in a combat zone, bank fraud, drug distribution, rape and a variety of other major and minor crimes. Currently he is lead defense counsel for Guantanamo Bay, Cuba detainee Omar Khadr at the Military Commissions for offenses that were allegedly committed as a 15 year-old boy in Afghanistan. Additionally, Lieutenant Colonel Vokey has also been assigned to the case of Staff Sergeant Frank Wuterich, the Marine squad leader who is charged with numerous counts of murder for events that occurred in November 2005 in Haditha, Iraq.
Lieutenant Colonel Vokey is a graduate of the non-resident Warfighting Skills Program, Amphibious Warfare School and Command and Staff College. He was also selected as a member of the 1991 All-Marine Rugby Team. He has published one article in the Summer 2004 volume of the Military Law Review, Article 107, UCMJ: Do False Statements Really Have to Be Official?, 180 Mil. L. Rev. 1. His personal awards include the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy Commendation Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Navy Achievement Medal, Outstanding Volunteer Service Medal, the Honorable Order of Saint Barbara, and the Combat Action Ribbon.