1L Richard Winterkorn’s Air Force experience inspires path to law school

When Congress offered up an opportunity for military service members to take an early retirement in 2014, Richard Winterkorn took advantage of the opportunity. The 1L, originally from Orange County, California, retired as Master Sergeant after serving for 16 years in the United States Air Force.

His strong resume would have presented plenty of options after his service, but Winterkorn chose to study law. He gravitated toward Brandeis School of Law specifically because of its public service focus.

“It was a natural fit for me. Public service is a core tenant of this law school. People typically join the military for a cause that is bigger than themselves. I was looking for ways to continue to serve and this made sense. I served my country, now I am going to focus on serving my community,” he said.

Winterkorn brings a unique global perspective to the Brandeis School of Law.

He received his bachelor’s degree at the University of Phoenix for criminal justice. He pursued a master’s degree, also in criminal justice, at the University of Cincinnati. Prior to earning his degrees, he spent time as a police officer in the Air Force.

“I fell in love with the job, with being a police officer and the military. Throughout my 16 years in the Air Force, I didn’t know what I wanted to do. But I was eventually (2001) hired to teach at an Air Force Police Academy in San Antonio. That’s when I decided to go back to school. I needed to know more about the reasons behind the policies we were enforcing,” he said.

Winterkorn mastered the training, spending two years as the manager of curriculum development in Nevada, where he developed and validated 50 courses covering Air Force military police operations prior to deployment. He went on to manage firearms training at a base in Korea and law enforcement training in Germany.

In 2009, Winterkorn became the installation security and defense shift supervisor at Bagram Airfield in Afghanistan. He then moved on to supervisory roles in Germany again (2009-2010) and Greenland (2010-11).

In 2011, Winterkorn was named chief of investigations and intelligence at Andersen Air Force Base in Guam. For his last stint prior to his retirement, he was the manager of weapons training and policy at the headquarters of the United States Air Force Europe and Africa, at Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.

In this final capacity, Winterkorn managed all combat arms programs and Security Forces’ ammunition for USAFE-AFARICA. He authored policy that affected two COCOMs and supported 26 NATO allies. He also oversaw overseas weapons valued at $26 million, 67 combat arms instructors and six Air Force firing range complexes which train 23,000 personnel annually.

Now, Winterkorn is nearing the end of his first year as a Brandeis student.

“When the opportunity came up for early retirement, I was hesitant and I thought a lot about it. I decided to take the chance and roll the dice. I always spent time thinking about what I was going to do after the military and I knew I was either going to get my PhD in criminal justice or a law degree. One was theorizing about criminal justice and the other is being a participant in the system,” Winterkorn said.

His interest in the law was sparked during his time in the military, but fueled even further when he was earning his master’s degree (2012) in criminal justice.

“I studied what was going on in the system, what works in recidivism and what doesn’t. I believe the criminal justice system doesn’t always effectively rehabilitate people. I don’t think it’s effective to reduce recidivism, which should be the purpose of the system in the first place,” he said. “That’s when I wanted to get more involved. I felt like I could make more of a difference in the law.”

Winterkorn’s interest at the moment is criminal law and his goal is to become a public defender after graduation. He calls criminal law “busy and challenging.”

“During my time running criminal investigations, there were a couple of outcomes I disagreed with and it made me want to get involved in the process at the defense level,” he said. “I believe in the zealous defense of everyone, but I don’t think people always get the best defense. Hopefully I’ll give them the best they can get.”