NAS Corpus Christi: Where Naval Aviators Begin
On the Flour Bluff peninsula southeast of downtown Corpus Christi, surrounded on three sides by the bays and the Laguna Madre, NAS Corpus Christi is one of the Navy's primary flight-training bases, the place where student naval aviators take their first steps toward wings in the T-6 Texan and a multiengine program transitioning from the T-44 Pegasus to the T-54A Marlin II, training Navy, Marine, and Coast Guard students alike. It is a young population of students and instructors under the long Gulf Coast summer, with the USS Lexington museum across the bay, Padre Island down the road, and the steady sea breeze. A command that makes the next generation of aviators will protect that mission and move hard against a student or Sailor who steps wrong.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and Sailors and student aviators fly us in from our office in Tampa because a contested court martial is decided by trial experience, and we bring it wherever the case is.
The Officer Who Took the Blows for Another Man
NAS Corpus Christi forms officers of character, and the standard for that was set by Commander Richard N. Antrim as a prisoner of war at Makassar in 1942. When guards were beating a fellow officer toward death, Antrim stepped in, stopped the beating, and offered to take the remaining blows himself, an act of such cool moral courage that the captors relented and conditions improved for thousands of prisoners. He put himself between a man and the worst of it without a weapon in his hand. That is the standard of character we bring to a case at NAS Corpus Christi.
Why People at NAS Corpus Christi Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Sailors 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 command that trains the fleet's aviators will make an example of a student or a Sailor to protect that mission. For a student aviator there is a second front, because a Field Naval Aviator Evaluation Board or an attrition action can end the pipeline on a standard far below a conviction, so the criminal case and the path to wings are two fights at once. A serious case is investigated by NCIS, 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 detailed counsel from the Defense Service Office 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 NAS Corpus Christi
The charges below are the ones we see most often at NAS Corpus Christi, not the only ones we defend. If you are facing a different UCMJ allegation, we handle that too.
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 training environment where word of an allegation travels fast. 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 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 a Navy career because a Sailor has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Corpus ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Drunken or Reckless Operation, the Military DUI (UCMJ Article 113). A flight training station full of young Sailors and student aviators in a Gulf Coast city sees Article 113 cases regularly, and for a student naval aviator a drunk driving charge can close the path to wings on its own. The Navy can pursue the offense even when the county does not, and both can run at once. None of that is automatic, though, because the traffic stop, the field sobriety tests, and the breath or blood evidence all have to survive scrutiny, and they frequently do not.
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 Sailor is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in Corpus that ends badly comes back to the command, and for a student aviator a drug allegation can end a flying career before it begins. 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, and whether any use was knowing all remain the government's to prove.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every Sailor who calls us from NAS Corpus Christi is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your detailed 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 wings, 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, on 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 NAS Corpus Christi, 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
NCIS wants to interview me at Corpus Christi. Do I have to talk to them?
No. You are not required to sit for an NCIS 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. NCIS 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 a student naval aviator. If I'm charged, can I lose my shot at wings even if I'm not convicted?
Yes. A Field Naval Aviator Evaluation Board or an attrition action runs on a separate, lower standard than a conviction, so you can be washed out of the pipeline even if the criminal case does not stick. That is why the underlying allegation has to be defended on both fronts from the start, and we handle the criminal charge and the flight-status side together so one does not quietly sink the other.
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 NCIS.