Peterson Space Force Base: The Headquarters of the Space Force
On the east side of Colorado Springs against the Front Range, Peterson Space Force Base is a headquarters base at the heart of the Space Force: the home of Combat Forces Command and, alongside it, U.S. Northern Command and NORAD. It is dense with senior officers, joint staff, and Guardians, the kind of small, watched community where a single allegation travels fast. Families settle across the Springs in the shadow of Pikes Peak, with Garden of the Gods, the Air Force Academy, and Fort Carson all part of the same heavily military city at six thousand feet. In a headquarters this scrutinized, a career can be put at risk on an accusation alone.
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 the billet can be gone before any verdict, people here bring in their own counsel.
The Pilot Who Would Not Leave His Crew
Peterson has no Medal of Honor of its own, so the standard is set by a Colorado native, First Lieutenant Donald D. Pucket, a B-24 pilot over Ploesti on July 9, 1944. After a flak hit killed one crewman, wounded six, and set the bomber afire, Pucket steadied the plane, gave first aid, and ordered the crew to bail out; when three panicked men refused to jump, he stayed at the controls rather than leave them and rode the aircraft into a mountainside. He would not abandon the men who depended on him. That is the standard we bring to a case at Peterson.
Why Guardians at Peterson 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 senior headquarters will make an example of a member to protect its image. 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 Peterson Space Force Base
We defend every kind of military charge. The ones below are simply the most common at Peterson.
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 at a headquarters where appearances matter. 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, where self defense is a recognized defense.
False Official Statements and Fraud (UCMJ Articles 107 and 124). In a headquarters workforce 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 Peterson 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 Peterson 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 Peterson. 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 at a headquarters base a statement can drive the criminal case and your reputation in a small command all at once. 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 ends the access and the billet.
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.