Mich. soldier in Iraq sworn in as lawyer by video

LANSING, Mich. — Army Reserve Maj. Miles Gengler didn’t hesitate as he repeated the oath during his swearing-in as an attorney. His words just had to travel more than 6,000 miles from Baghdad’s Green Zone to Michigan to be heard.

Michigan Supreme Court Chief Justice Marilyn Kelly administered the oath to Gengler, 35, by video during a long-distance ceremony Thursday at the state National Guard headquarters in Lansing.

“I’m just in awe,” said Gengler, of Grand Blanc. “I’m just a soldier like 120,000 or so others here in Iraq.”

The chief justice said it was an emotional swearing-in, partly because of the time delay between when she stated the 240-word oath and when Gengler could repeat it.

“It served to remind me how far away he is,” Kelly said.

Kelly and National Guard officials said they were unaware of such a video swearing-in happening in the United States before.

Gengler’s high school sweetheart-turned-wife, Heather, his daughters Carson, 12, and Hayden, 8, and parents watched him on a TV screen. He could see them, too, and they talked for a bit following the ceremony.

“For a long time he didn’t sleep much at all,” Heather Gengler said of the hectic time before her husband left for Iraq, when he needed Red Bull energy drinks to make it through the day.

Miles Gengler would wake up at 4 a.m. and drive more than an hour to work at uniform supplier Cintas Corp. in Midland while listening to legal CDs. Later, he’d squeeze in time with his wife and three kids, and pack for Iraq. Then there was settling matters before he left the country — and studying for Michigan’s two-day bar exam.

He graduated with honors from Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Auburn Hills in September after finishing law school in four years by taking weekend classes. He almost missed the February bar exam because of his deployment but was able to delay his departure to take the test. He found out he passed in May.

“I’m proud of everything he does,” Heather Gengler said. “He serves our country and makes sacrifices that most people can’t imagine. On top of all of that, he’s very, very driven. Who knows what he’ll do next?”

When he returns from Iraq in 2010, Miles Gengler wants to practice in corporate, labor or bankruptcy law. He wanted to be an attorney years ago but put law school on hold after starting a family.

“There’s no better time than the present,” he said.

Gengler is part of the Multi-National Security Transition Command, which trains the Iraqi military. He joined the Army in 1996 after graduating from the University of Michigan, where he was in ROTC. He later was a tank commander in South Korea. His grandfather, father and stepbrother all have served in the military.