Would JAG officers normally wear a night vision holder on their helmet?

A JAG officer wouldn’t usually have a CAB, that’s for being in direct combat. USASOC has plenty of JAG officers; for support personnel it’s just an assignment like any other. What gear you receive and wear is up to the unit, but even as a Career Counselor I get issued night vision and a weapon. As for the end of tour award, those things got handed out like candy back then. On my first deployment from 04-05, MSG/CPT and above received Silver stars, SFC/LT received Bronze stars, and everyone below that received ARCOMS

Yeah, none of us really get the option to decline gear... I really wish they would. Everyone gets the fancy gear, whether they'll use it or not.

As for his wearing it, well, we all know that uniformity is more important than function, and somewhere in his chain of command was a Command Team that demanded everyone's uniforms and gear be identical.

My experience (circa '06-'07) is that "everyone got stuff"... even if it ended up never being used. The really funny thing was seeing folks with the "Rhino mount" on their Kevlar... but their "Nods" packed away in some con-locker back at the FOB. I ended up with two different sets of body armor... because something "new" got rolled out while I was down range. We had another guy from an EOD team who had three; his two issue, and the one he brought from his regular job. EVERYONE seemed to be buying stuff online too... DHL has a long reach LOL.