Buckley Space Force Base: Watching the Skies
In Aurora, on the east side of the Denver metro, Buckley Space Force Base watches the skies: Space Base Delta 2 provides installation support, while Mission Delta 4 runs the missile warning and infrared surveillance mission that would see a launch first. The base also hosts a Colorado Air National Guard F-16 wing and intelligence community tenants at the Aerospace Data Facility. It is the most urban of Colorado's space bases, surrounded by suburbs with Denver and the airport close and the mountains an hour west, and it is saturated with members read into compartmented programs. In a community this tightly held, a single allegation can put the whole job at risk overnight.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and members 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. When a career can be derailed before any verdict, getting your own counsel early is what protects it.
The Pilot Who Flew the Mission Through His Wounds
Buckley has no Medal of Honor of its own, so the standard is set by Major Jay Zeamer Jr., who flew a lone B-17 on a critical mapping and reconnaissance run near Buka in the Solomon Islands on June 16, 1943. Attacked by some twenty enemy fighters, Zeamer held the camera run to finish the mission, was shot through both arms and both legs, and kept maneuvering the crippled bomber through a forty-minute running fight before flying it home. He brought back the picture the mission needed, at a terrible cost to himself. That devotion to the surveillance mission is the standard we bring to a case at Buckley.
Why Guardians at Buckley Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and members 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 missile warning command will make an example of a member to protect its mission. A serious case is investigated by the Office of Special Investigations, 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. The Area Defense Counsel may be capable but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why members serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Buckley Space Force Base
We take on the full range of court martial charges. Below are the ones that come up most often at Buckley.
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. A conviction can mean confinement and a federal record, with registration required for a covered sex offense under the applicable federal and state law. These cases demand counsel who will run an independent investigation and contest the case rather than let the allegation stand in for proof.
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 a career because a member has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Denver ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
False Official Statements and Fraud (UCMJ Articles 107 and 124). In a workforce this tightly held a security or administrative inquiry can turn adversarial fast, and a statement that does not match the record becomes a false official statement under Article 107, sometimes stacked with fraud against the United States under Article 124. The government still has to prove a knowing falsity and an intent to deceive, not just an inconsistency or an honest mistake, and that gap is where these cases are won.
Drugs (UCMJ Article 112a). Marijuana that is legal off base in Colorado is still a federal controlled substance and a court martial offense under Article 112a. But a positive urinalysis 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 member who calls us from Buckley is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, the Area Defense 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 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 Buckley Space Force Base, 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
OSI wants to interview me at Buckley. Do I have to talk to them?
No. Under Article 31b of the UCMJ you have the right to remain silent and to a lawyer, and you can invoke both before the interview begins. OSI is gathering evidence, not offering a chance to explain, and in a tight-knit community a statement can drive the criminal case and your reputation for years. Decline, ask for the Area Defense Counsel or your own lawyer, and say nothing until you have one.
My access was suspended over an investigation. Can you get my clearance back?
We defend the criminal allegation that is driving the suspension, because winning or narrowing that case is the strongest leverage there is on what the security office decides. We do not litigate the clearance adjudication itself. The priority is to beat the charge before it becomes the record that the security review relies on.
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 OSI.