Fort Huachuca: The Army's Intelligence Schoolhouse
In the high desert of southeastern Arizona, Fort Huachuca is the Army's Military Intelligence Center of Excellence and the home of NETCOM, the schoolhouse where intelligence soldiers are trained and the historic home of the Buffalo Soldier. The gate town of Sierra Vista is fused to the post, set against the Huachuca Mountains as a sky island with cool nights, a dramatic July monsoon, Tombstone and Bisbee down the road, and Tucson about seventy-five miles north. The Mexican border is only fifteen miles off, so Border Patrol and checkpoints are part of daily life. The people here are students and cadre, most of them new to the Army and building careers that an allegation can derail before they have really begun.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and soldiers fly us in from around the world because a contested court martial is decided by trial experience, not by which lawyer is nearest the gate. At a schoolhouse where a single flag can wash a soldier out before training is done, getting your own counsel early matters.
The Buffalo Soldier Who Did the Hard Thing Precisely
The standard at the home of the Buffalo Soldier was set by Sergeant William McBryar, a trooper of the 10th Cavalry who earned the Medal of Honor in Arizona Territory itself. In March 1890, leading the pursuit of an Apache band along the Salt River, he cornered them in a narrow canyon and, through coolness and marksmanship under fire, forced their surrender without losing a man. He did the hard thing precisely and without theatrics. That is the standard we bring to a case at Huachuca.
Why People at Huachuca Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and soldiers fly us in from all over the country because of our trial record. The military justice system is not built to find the truth; it exists to preserve good order and discipline, and a schoolhouse that trains the Army's intelligence force will make an example of a student or a cadre member to protect the standard. A serious case is investigated by Army CID, and for sexual assault and other covered offenses the decision to refer charges to a court martial no longer belongs to your command but goes to an independent Special Trial Counsel. Your Trial Defense Service counsel may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why those serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Fort Huachuca
This is not the whole list of what we do at Fort Huachuca. We take every kind of court martial, and these are simply the charges that come up most.
Sexual Assault and Sex Offenses (UCMJ Article 120 / Article 134). These allegations route to an independent Special Trial Counsel now, and the command treats a report as established before the investigation is finished, all the more so in a schoolhouse where word travels fast and the command wants to look decisive. The same allegation can wash a soldier out of training long before any verdict, so the case has to be fought early, not just at trial. A conviction can mean confinement and a federal record, with registration required for a covered sex offense under the applicable federal and state law.
Domestic Violence and Assault (UCMJ Articles 128b and 128). Domestic violence under Article 128b is charged as aggressively as any offense in the UCMJ since the Office of Special Trial Counsel took these cases over. It covers a spouse, an intimate partner, or a family member, and it treats strangulation or suffocation as its own charge that the government can bring even with no visible injury. A qualifying conviction also triggers the federal Lautenberg firearms bar, which can end an Army career because a soldier has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Sierra Vista ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
False Official Statements (UCMJ Article 107). In a schoolhouse population a security or command inquiry can turn adversarial fast, and a statement that does not match the record becomes a false official statement under Article 107. The government still has to prove a knowing falsity and an intent to deceive, not just an inconsistency or a nervous answer in an interview, and that gap is where these cases are won.
Drugs (UCMJ Article 112a). A unit urinalysis is one of the most common ways a young soldier's career comes apart at a training post, because the flag can land before the case is ever resolved. But a positive test is evidence the government may use to argue knowing, wrongful use, not an automatic finding of guilt, so the collection, the chain of custody, the lab work, and whether any use was knowing and wrongful all remain the government's to prove.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every soldier who calls us from Huachuca is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your Trial Defense Service counsel can handle it, and we will tell you so honestly. But when the case is serious, everything is on the line at once: your training, your career, your good name, and your freedom. A court martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction, and the applicable sentencing parameters tie a confinement range to the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, that a judge can depart from only by stating specific facts in writing, on top of any required or adjudged punitive discharge and, for a covered sex offense, sex offender registration. That is why you fight. The court’s jurisdiction and the convicted offense determine which sentencing rules apply; some offenses use separate sentencing criteria rather than these ranges.
If you are facing an investigation or court martial at Fort Huachuca, reach out for a free, confidential strategy session. We will tell you exactly what you are facing and how we would defend it. The government is already building its case. The only question is whether anyone is building yours.
FAQ
CID wants to interview me at Huachuca. Do I have to go?
You can decline to answer questions, but do not ignore a lawful order to report. Under Article 31b of the UCMJ you can stay silent and ask for a lawyer, and you can do both before the interview begins. CID is gathering evidence, not offering a chance to explain, and here a statement can feed the criminal case and a training action at the same time. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you say anything.
I'm an MI student and my security clearance was suspended during an investigation. Will this end my career before it starts?
It can, because a flag and a security suspension can pull you out of training and stall everything you came here for. We defend the underlying criminal allegation that is driving the flag and the security review, not the clearance adjudication itself, because beating the charge is the best leverage there is on the security side. Get your own counsel involved before you give a statement to CID, because what you say in the schoolhouse follows you.
I'm under an Article 120 investigation. Will I have to register as a sex offender if I'm convicted?
A court martial conviction for a covered Article 120 offense triggers registration duties under the applicable federal and state law, with requirements and duration determined by the covered conviction and jurisdiction. The entire defense is aimed at defeating the charge or reducing it to an offense that carries no registration, and the investigation and the charging decision are where these cases are most often turned. Get your own counsel involved before you ever sit down with CID.