By Samuel Newhouse
Brooklyn Daily Eagle

JAY STREET — Judicial robes aren’t the only uniform that Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice John G. Ingram dons.

Justice Ingram also serves in the New York Naval Militia, as deputy commander. He was promoted a year ago to Rear Admiral.

Ingram, who has been a judge for six years, said that not very many people know about the Militia, even though it’s existed since 1889. Similar to the president and the U.S. military, New York Gov. David Paterson is currently commander-in-chief.

Despite its century-long history, the New York Naval Militia really came into its own after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. In the months following the attacks, the Naval Militia received funding through Homeland Security grants that allowed it to purchase a 10-boat patrol fleet, which helps it serve as a set of “eyes and ears� in the waters surrounding New York City and state.

“The state of New York is unique in that we have the only active naval militia in the United States with its own patrol fleet,� Justice Ingram said. “And we have one of the best patrol fleets in the country.� Militia boats currently perform patrols around the city harbor, in parts of the Hudson River, in bodies of water near Rochester, and around the Indian Point nuclear facility upstate.

“We have things going every day,� Ingram said. “I’m here [at the Brooklyn Supreme Court] at 8:30 every morning, looking at military traffic.�

The Militia works cooperatively with the Empire Shield task force, a Fort Hamilton-based National Guard force that protects New York City and the metropolitan area.

The Naval Militia also supported Fleet Week celebrations earlier this week. The U.S.S. Roosevelt aircraft-carrier was escorted into the city harbor by one of the Naval Militia’s PB 440 patrol boats — a high-tech, jet-powered, computer-guided 44-foot-long vessel.

Militia members are not sworn law enforcement officers and don’t carry guns, but many of the 2,600 members are Navy, Army and Coast Guard reservists. They can help transport other security forces, and also provide specialized assistance and support, with things like communications and heavy equipment operations.

Justice Ingram, an acting Supreme Court justice in the Criminal Term, has been a member of the Militia since 1966. He joined the U.S. Navy in 1964 and retired at the rank of captain 30 years later.

During his time in the Navy, Ingram worked as an admiralty lawyer and as a commanding officer at five different locations, including Floyd Bennett Field in Brooklyn.

Ingram said he is very proud to be a Militia member, recalling the mission to assist at the TWA 800 airplane crash site in Long Island in 1996.

But the war on terrorism really created the need for the Naval Militia’s work, Ingram said. For homeland security, groups like the Naval Militia – and the New York Guard, which Ingram said other Brooklyn judges participate in — are extremely useful.

“People say, [terrorists] only have to be right once, but we have to be right 100 percent of the time,� Ingram said.

“Everybody works together today. That’s the secret. Look at Riverdale,� he said, in reference to the recently uncovered terrorist plot in the Bronx, which was uncovered and stopped by city, state and federal agencies working cooperatively.

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