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I disagree with your point 2 but don’t disagree with your overall assessment.

On point 2 here’s why: As an Ensign I was given collateral duty as the ship’s Legal Officer. Master At Arms of the ship did most of the work but I oversaw and conducted investigations or assigned investigations as needed. I had 6 weeks of Naval Legal School training. Conducting an investigation isn’t hard you just need to step through the questions and be very detailed and concise. Detailed and concise is why a simple JAGMAN investigation will lead to hundreds of pages in documentation.

If the guy is halfway intelligent he can learn the job in 6-9 months. I conducted several JAGMAN’s, way over 100 Captain’s Mast, wrote up charges for a few Courts-Martial, and conducted over 50 Administrative separation boards assisting the base command. It was to the point that the JAG officers on base were asking me to apply to get my JD. That was all on top of helping my Chief run my Division and getting qual’d as a SWO.

Simple, concise, detailed. That is what it takes to be an investigator. The only additional items required are a spine and integrity. If you have the former you may be given shit jobs. If you have the latter they won’t be able to touch you.

Oh I forgot - you need to be able to type due to all the paperwork and you’ll need a lot of coffee.

I’m not talking about doing a Q&A on some Bosun’s Mate, who got drunk and got into a bar fight. As a former detective in a major department, I can assure that a criminal investigation can be easy and it can be impossible. I’ll give you an example:

I worked a case involving 5 yr old, who had gonorrhea so bad that it spread from her vagina to her anus. I found out about it due to the mandatory disclosure law required to teachers and medical personnel. The mother thought she just had diarrhea, or so she said. Well, after exhaustive intern views, forensic interviews and analysis done by licensed professionals, and actually begging the family members for help, I got nothing. The 5yr old wouldn’t give it up, she was that scared. Case never solved.

More, you interviewing some Gunner’s Mate, who banged some whore while on shore leaved, scared shitless over getting kicked out of the Navy is a little different than meeting an informant in the middle of the night.

So let’s not get a little too cozy on how easy it is. Sometimes it is, sometimes it’s not. But, YES, there is more paperwork than you can imagine and in the so called, Digital Age, it seems like there’s more trees being killed than ever before.