WebLogic 9.1 Web Services

On the topic of null pointer exceptions, I tried to create a JWS web service that accepted a POJO argument that had a SOAPElement property.  It compiled and deployed fine, but when I invoked the web service, I got the dreaded NPE:

java.lang.NullPointerException at test.TestServiceImpl.operation1(TestServiceImpl.java:17) at
        sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at
        sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39) at
        sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25) at
        java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:585) at
        weblogic.wsee.component.pojo.JavaClassComponent.invoke(JavaClassComponent.java:91) at
        weblogic.wsee.ws.dispatch.server.ComponentHandler.handleRequest(ComponentHandler.java:68) at
        weblogic.wsee.handler.HandlerIterator.handleRequest(HandlerIterator.java:127) at
        weblogic.wsee.ws.dispatch.server.ServerDispatcher.dispatch(ServerDispatcher.java:84) at
        weblogic.wsee.ws.WsSkel.invoke(WsSkel.java:60) at
        weblogic.wsee.server.servlet.SoapProcessor.handlePost(SoapProcessor.java:66) at
        weblogic.wsee.server.servlet.SoapProcessor.process(SoapProcessor.java:44) at
        weblogic.wsee.server.servlet.BaseWSServlet$AuthorizedInvoke.run(BaseWSServlet.java:124) at
        weblogic.wsee.server.servlet.BaseWSServlet.service(BaseWSServlet.java:53) at
        javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)

If I declare the service with a SOAPElement as a direct parameter, it works as advertised.