Profile
Captain Rymn Parsons is the Commanding Officer of Navy Reserve, Naval War College (Law), and in civilian life is Environmental/BRAC Practice Team Leader, Office of Counsel, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Mid-Atlantic, located at Naval Station, Norfolk, Virginia, with a practice concentrating in environmental law and land use law. Before assuming the Office of Counsel position in April 1999, Captain Parsons served nearly 14 years in the Navy Judge Advocate General’s Corps, and before that spent 4 years in private practice in Litchfield County, Connecticut.
As a Reservist, his tours of duty include staff judge advocate (Navy Region Mid-Atlantic Reserve Component Command, 2007-2009); commanding officer (Navy Reserve, Navy Personnel Command Legal, 2005-2007); counsel to the CNO Environmental Readiness Division (Navy Reserve, Chief of Naval Operations, Fleet Readiness and Logistics, 2002-2005); and, executive officer (Navy Reserve, Trial Service Office, East 406, 2000-2002). His tours of active duty as a Navy judge advocate include staff judge advocate, regional environmental counsel, and ethics counselor (Commander, Submarine Group TWO/Commander, Navy Region, Northeast, 1996-1999); military judge (Navy-Marine Corps Trial Judiciary, Tidewater Judicial Circuit, Norfolk, Virginia, 1992-1995); command judge advocate (USS DWIGHT D. EISENHOWER (CVN 69), 1990-1992); group judge advocate (Commander, Naval Surface Group FOUR, 1988-1990); and, trial counsel, defense counsel, and claims attorney (Naval Legal Service Office, Newport, Rhode Island, 1985-1988). His military decorations include multiple awards of the Meritorious Service Medal, Navy-Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and Navy-Marine Corps Achievement Medal.
Captain Parsons is admitted to the bar of the Connecticut Supreme Court; the U.S. District Court, District of Connecticut; the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces; and, the U.S. Supreme Court. He has been listed in Who's Who in the World, Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Law, and Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America, and is a NITA-certified trial advocacy instructor and general court-martial certified military judge. His publications include The Climate is Changing, the Navy Is on Course, Proceedings (2010), Climate Change: The Hottest Issue in Security Studies?, Risk, Hazards & Crisis in Public Policy (2010); Taking up the Security Challenge of Climate Change, Strategic Studies Institute (2009); The Fight to Save the Planet, Georgetown International Environmental Law Review (1998); and, Nonresident Defendants in Matrimonial Actions, Connecticut Family Law Journal (1983). Accepted into the Defense Leadership and Management Program for senior DOD civilian employees in 2005, he is a 2009 graduate of the U.S. Army War College, where he earned a Master of Strategic Studies degree and captured the Army War College Foundation Outstanding Writing Prize.
Captain Parsons holds a Master of Laws degree, with dual designation in environmental law and international law, from The George Washington University Law School. He is also a graduate of Vestal Central Senior High School, Vestal, New York, where he lettered in tennis; Eisenhower College, Seneca Falls, New York, where he lettered in soccer and tennis; and Union University's Albany Law School, Albany, New York. An Eagle Scout, B.S.A.; a former Rotary International exchange student to Denmark; and a tennis professional certified by the Professional Tennis Registry, he was an assistant and then head Men’s Tennis Coach at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy, New London, Connecticut (1997-1999). He also holds the National Soccer Coaches Association of America National Diploma, and coached girls travel soccer for several years with Beach FC.