Camp Henry: The Headquarters of the Daegu Enclave, and Where Its Courts-Martial Are Heard
Camp Henry sits in the Nam-gu district of Daegu and serves as the headquarters of U.S. Army Garrison Daegu and the home of the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command. It is a command-and-control camp, the administrative center of the southern enclave, and for a Soldier facing the military justice system that detail matters more than it sounds: the courtroom where the enclave's courts martial are heard is right here. If your case goes to trial in the Daegu area, this is very likely where it happens.
That proximity to the headquarters cuts against you. A camp full of senior staff and a command focused on its own readiness has plenty of attention to spare for a disciplinary matter, and in Korea every command answers to the same fear of an incident that embarrasses the Army in front of the host nation. A case at Camp Henry is a fight for a career, a retirement, and sometimes freedom, and the only way to win it is to deny the prosecution the easy conviction it expects and make it prove every element of what it has charged.
The Lieutenant Who Stayed Behind at Am-dong
Camp Henry carries the name of a Soldier who bought his men's lives with his own. First Lieutenant Frederick F. Henry, of Company F, 38th Infantry Regiment, 2nd Infantry Division, was holding a position near Am-dong on September 1, 1950, when a far larger enemy force hit his platoon. Already seriously wounded, Henry ordered his men to withdraw and stayed behind alone to cover them, holding the attackers off single-handed until he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and the camp in Daegu was renamed in his honor in 1960. He held a hopeless position so the people counting on him could get out, and that refusal to fold under impossible odds is the standard we bring to a fight at Camp Henry.
Why Soldiers at Camp Henry Fly Us In
This firm has worked Korea for as long as Tim Bilecki has been a defense lawyer. His final active duty post was Senior Defense Counsel for the Army's Trial Defense Service across the Pacific Rim, and as a civilian he has returned to the peninsula more than sixty times, trying contested courts martial in front of these commands and winning full acquittals in cases that range from sexual assault and domestic violence to BAH fraud. A serious case at Camp Henry is investigated by Army CID, and for sexual assault, domestic violence, and other covered offenses the charging decision no longer belongs to your command; it goes to an independent Special Trial Counsel in the Army's Office of Special Trial Counsel, whose Korea field office sits at Camp Humphreys, where Eighth Army's military justice runs. When prosecutors see counsel with that kind of Korea record fly in, the easy win is gone. The actual entitlement depends on the orders, dependent status, authorized location, and applicable housing rule; an address discrepancy alone does not establish an overpayment or criminal intent.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Camp Henry
We are not limited to the charges below. They are the most common at Camp Henry, and we defend the full range of UCMJ allegations.
Sexual Assault and Sex Offenses (UCMJ Article 120 / Article 134). The Army's SHARP program operates at Camp Henry with the same pressure that drives these cases everywhere, treating the allegation as established before the investigation is done and holding administrative separation in reserve for when the evidence will not support a charge. These cases route to an independent Special Trial Counsel now, and they demand counsel who will investigate independently and contest the case early, before charges are preferred.
Fraud and Larceny (UCMJ Article 121 / Article 107). Korea has some of the highest housing allowance fraud rates in the military, and a Soldier drawing BAH against a dependent's stateside address or OHA against a local lease can be accused of theft when an auditor decides the paperwork was deliberate. When the government alleges that knowingly false housing information was used to obtain unauthorized allowances, it may charge the conduct as larceny under Article 121 and a false official statement under Article 107. The government still has to prove intent, and a finance error or a family that genuinely moved is not a scheme. We defend BAH and OHA fraud, larceny, wrongful appropriation, and conspiracy to defraud. The actual entitlement depends on the orders, dependent status, authorized location, and applicable housing rule; an address discrepancy alone does not establish an overpayment or criminal intent.
Domestic Violence and Assault (UCMJ Articles 128b and 128). Domestic violence under Article 128b is now one of the largest parts of our caseload, prosecuted by the Office of Special Trial Counsel as hard as any offense. It covers a spouse, an intimate partner, or a family member and makes strangulation or suffocation a separate, serious charge even with no visible injury, and a qualifying conviction triggers the federal Lautenberg firearms bar that can end a Soldier's career. We also defend assault under Article 128, including off post confrontations, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Drug Offenses (UCMJ Article 112a). The drug cases that worry the command in Korea are less about a positive marijuana test and more about synthetic drugs and substances bought on the economy or shipped in. A positive urinalysis is not the end of the fight, because the chain of custody can be challenged, innocent ingestion is recognized, and the government still has to prove any use was knowing and wrongful, often alongside a severe Korean drug investigation.
Military Specific Offenses (UCMJ Articles 92, 134, and more). In a headquarters environment, failure to obey, dereliction, false official statement, and conduct unbecoming get stacked onto a charge sheet to inflate the maximum punishment and the pressure to plead. Every specification still has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt on its own, and the weak ones on an inflated charge sheet are the first to fall.
A Case at the Headquarters Camp Is Still Winnable
Not every Soldier who calls us from Korea is innocent, and we do not pretend otherwise. Some made a mistake and know it. That does not mean accepting the worst the system can hand out. If a matter is genuinely minor, your free 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 conviction is a federal criminal conviction that can carry confinement, a punitive discharge, and on a sex offense a place on a registry, no matter your rank. If you are facing an investigation or court martial at Camp Henry, reach out for a free defense strategy session. We will fly to Korea, tell you exactly what you are facing, and lay out how we would defend it.
Cases Connected to Camp Henry
These cases include trials, hearings, investigations, and administrative matters. A connection to this location does not necessarily mean that the trial occurred here.
- Case connected to this location: Male-on-Male Sexual Harassment Case Resolved with GOMOR
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Cuts $76,000 BAH Fraud Case from Five Specifications to One Plea and Secures Army Retirement at Camp Henry
FAQ
The courtroom and the SJA are on Camp Henry. Does being tried at the headquarters camp change anything for me?
Not in the rules, but in the reality of how the case is handled. Camp Henry is the headquarters of USAG Daegu and the 19th Expeditionary Sustainment Command, and the courtroom that hears the enclave's courts martial is here, so the staff judge advocate's office building your prosecution and the panel that may judge you are part of the same headquarters footprint. That makes early, independent defense work more important, not less, because the institutional momentum at a command-and-control camp runs toward resolving the matter cleanly. The case is still processed through Eighth Army and the Office of Special Trial Counsel, and the most valuable work happens before charges are preferred.
I'm assigned to one of the smaller Daegu-area camps, like George or Carroll. Which command and courtroom handles my case?
The same machinery that handles the whole enclave. The case runs through Eighth Army's system and is heard in the courtroom at Camp Henry, with covered offenses charged by the independent Special Trial Counsel rather than the local command. Being at a small, quiet camp does not mean a small, quiet process. Get counsel engaged early, because witnesses and evidence at a small camp scatter quickly when people rotate.
Can my command flag me and freeze my career while the investigation drags on?
Yes, and it is one of the first things that happens. A flag can suspend favorable personnel actions such as promotion, schools, reenlistment, and awards; the effect on a permanent change of station depends on the flag category and any authorized exception, and it can stay in place for the length of an investigation that has not proven anything. That limbo is its own kind of pressure, and commands sometimes let it run because a stalled career wears a Soldier down toward accepting a deal. It is one more reason to get counsel involved early and push the case toward resolution rather than letting it sit, because the flag does not lift until the underlying matter is resolved.