Powidz: America's Prepositioned Armor on the Eastern Flank
In the lake country of western Poland, in Wielkopolska about an hour east of Poznań, Powidz is where the U.S. Army keeps the steel that lets it reinforce NATO's eastern flank in days instead of months. The base holds the prepositioned equipment for a full armored brigade, the tanks, the fighting vehicles, the artillery, and the munitions to feed them, in what is the largest single piece of NATO infrastructure built in a generation, alongside an Army aviation footprint. The Soldiers here are the sustainment and aviation troops who keep that stock ready and the rotational units who draw it, a smaller and more spread out community than the big garrisons, set among the Polish farm towns and the lakes.
A serious charge on a rotation to Poland, far out on the eastern flank and a long way from any American courtroom, is no place to rely on whoever happens to be nearest. Court martial defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and the firm has taken its cases across Europe from its office in Tampa. We fly in to wherever the case is, because for a contested matter what matters is the lawyer's trial experience, not the distance to Poland.
The Tank Officer Who Led From in Front
Powidz exists to put armor into a fight fast, and the standard for that was set by Second Lieutenant Raymond Zussman, who commanded a pair of tanks in the drive across France in 1944. At Noroy le Bourg in September, he fought the action mostly on foot, out ahead of his own tanks and in the open, finding the enemy and turning his guns onto them position by position, until the German hold on the town broke, eighteen of them dead and ninety two captured. He led his armor from in front, where the danger was. He was killed nine days later. That instinct to get out ahead of the steel and break the enemy's hold is the standard we bring to a case at Powidz.
Why Soldiers at Powidz Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Soldiers fly us in from all over the world 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 command on a watched eastern flank mission will make an example of a Soldier to show it holds 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 Soldiers serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Powidz
The cases below are the most common at Powidz. If yours is not here, call anyway, because we defend the full spectrum of military charges.
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 small forward community where a case draws attention fast and the command wants to look decisive. These cases demand counsel who will run an independent investigation and contest the case rather than let the allegation stand in for proof, because a conviction means confinement, a federal record, and a place on a sex offender registry.
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, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). A base built to store and hand out the equipment of a whole armored brigade requires tight accountability, and that is where property cases here are born. The government treats missing gear, an item that cannot be reconciled, or property that walked off as larceny under Article 121 or wrongful disposition of military property under Article 108, but a shortage in the churn of issuing and recovering prepositioned stock is not the same as theft, and the government still has to prove the state of mind required by the charged offense: intent for larceny or fraud, or negligence where Article 108 permits it, not just that something cannot be found.
Drugs and Off Duty Conduct (UCMJ Articles 112a and 134). Drug cases often turn on the chain of custody and the government's burden to prove any use was knowing and wrongful. A Soldier is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in the local towns or anywhere off base that ends badly comes back to the command. A serious off base matter in Poland can also be taken up by the Polish police and prosecuted in a Polish court, on a separate track from your command, so get counsel involved before you talk to anyone.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every Soldier who calls us from Poland 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 career, your retirement, your good name, and your freedom. A court martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction, and the parameters that now govern sentencing place each offense in a confinement range, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, binding the judge unless specific facts justify going lower, plus a punitive discharge and, on a covered sex offense, sex offender registration. That is why you fight.
If you are facing an investigation or court martial at Powidz, reach out for a free defense 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
Army CID wants to interview me at Powidz. Do I have to talk to them?
No. You are not required to sit for a CID interview or answer their questions. Under Article 31b of the UCMJ you have the right to remain silent and to a lawyer, and you can invoke both at any point, including before the interview begins. CID is collecting evidence, not giving you a chance to explain, and it takes very little to be titled as a subject, a label that follows you for years. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you give any statement.
I'm on a rotation to Poland. If I'm charged, where does my case actually get handled?
Usually through your command, and often not on the ground at Powidz. A rotational force answers to a parent command, and a serious case is convened and tried through that command, which can mean it follows the unit rather than being tried in country. What happens here is the investigation, and the investigation is where these cases are shaped, so the most valuable thing you can do is get your own counsel involved while you are still in country and the record is being built.
Something happened off base in Poland. Could the Polish authorities get involved too?
They can. Poland is a NATO host nation, and an off base incident can draw the Polish police under the agreement that governs U.S. forces here, on a separate track from the UCMJ case your command is pursuing. Investigations in the two systems may overlap, and what you say to one can affect the other, so do not give a statement to anyone until you have talked to a defense lawyer. The SOFA allocates primary jurisdiction and limits a second trial for the same offense; overlapping investigations do not mean that both countries may freely try the same charge.