RAF Mildenhall: Tankers and Special Operations in Suffolk
A few miles from Lakenheath, in the same stretch of Suffolk farm country, RAF Mildenhall is home to two very different missions. The 100th Air Refueling Wing flies the KC-135 Stratotankers that keep American and allied aircraft in the air across Europe and beyond, the only permanent U.S. air refueling wing on the continent, and it carries the heritage of the Bloody Hundredth that flew from England in the last war. Alongside it, the 352nd Special Operations Wing flies the CV-22 Osprey and MC-130J for Air Force special operations across the theater. The Airmen here are the tanker crews, the special operations aircrews and ground teams, and the maintainers and support behind them, many living out in the Suffolk villages near Mildenhall, Bury St Edmunds, and Cambridge.
When the case is serious and the stakes are your career and your freedom, the question is who you want trying it, not who is closest. Court martial defense is all we do, and Europe has grown into a steady part of the practice since the firm moved to Tampa. We fly in for the fight, because in a contested court martial what matters is the lawyer trying it, not the miles he travels.
The Airman Who Held the Site and Got His Men Out
Mildenhall's special operations mission runs back to Airmen like Chief Master Sergeant Richard L. Etchberger. In March 1968 he was running a small, top secret radar site on a mountaintop in Laos, a handful of Airmen with almost no combat training, when an enemy force scaled the cliffs and overran the position in the dark. With most of his men dead or wounded around him, Etchberger held the enemy off alone with a rifle, called in airstrikes almost on top of his own position, and directed a rescue aircraft in at first light. He loaded his surviving wounded men aboard one by one, and was killed by ground fire as the last of them lifted away. He gave his life getting his people out. That is the standard we bring to a case at Mildenhall: you hold the line and you get your people out.
Why Airmen at Mildenhall Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Airmen fly us in from all over the world because of our trial record. We have defended cases here at Mildenhall and next door at Lakenheath in recent years and won them, and when we are out for one we stay at the Bull, the old inn the area's defense counsel tend to favor too. The military justice system is not built to find the truth; it exists to preserve good order and discipline, and a command running tankers and special operations will make an example of an Airman to keep the mission tight. A serious case is investigated by the Air Force 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. Your Area Defense Counsel may be sharp but carries a heavy caseload inside the same system, which is why Airmen serious about winning bring in their own counsel.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at RAF Mildenhall
We are not limited to the charges below. They are the most common at RAF Mildenhall, and we defend the full range of UCMJ allegations.
Flight Status, Sensitive Missions, and Dereliction (UCMJ Article 92). For a rated officer or career enlisted aviator, an allegation can ground you before it ever reaches a courtroom. A flight discipline matter, a safety incident, a positive test, or any serious charge can pull you off flying status and send your aviation service to a Flying Evaluation Board, which can end your flying career on a standard far below what a court martial requires. For special operations aircrews and the teams whose access is the job, the same investigation can suspend the security clearance or access the assignment depends on, a separate administrative track that runs on what the criminal case finds, so a hard defense of the underlying allegation is the best protection for it. We defend the criminal charge and the Flying Evaluation Board together, because either consequence can end a career on its own.
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 tight tanker and special operations community where word 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 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 Air Force career because an Airman has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Larceny, Drugs, and Off Duty Conduct (UCMJ Articles 121, 112a, and 134). Property cases turn on the intent the government has to prove rather than assume, and drug cases turn on the chain of custody and the government's burden to prove any use was knowing and wrongful. An Airman is subject to the UCMJ off duty, so a night out in the local pubs or a wreck on the narrow Suffolk roads, where Americans are driving on the left, comes back to the command. A serious off base incident can also be taken up by the British police and tried in a British court, on a separate track from your command, so get counsel involved before you talk to anyone.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
Some of the Airmen who call us from Mildenhall did it, and we do not pretend otherwise. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your 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 flying status, your retirement, 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 Mildenhall, 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
I'm aircrew at Mildenhall and I've been pulled off flying status over an investigation. Can I lose my flying status even if I beat the charge?
Yes, because the Flying Evaluation Board and the court martial are separate tracks with separate standards. For a rated officer or career enlisted aviator, that board can act on the same allegation on a standard far below what a conviction requires, so you can win the criminal case and still lose your flying career if the board side is not fought. That is why the underlying allegation has to be defended on both fronts from the start, and we handle the criminal charge and the board together.
OSI wants to interview me at Mildenhall. Do I have to talk to them?
No. You are not required to sit for an OSI 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. OSI is collecting evidence, not giving you a chance to explain. Decline, ask for counsel, and call a defense lawyer before you give any statement.
Something happened off base in the UK. Could the British authorities get involved too?
They can. Under the agreement that governs U.S. forces here, the United Kingdom can claim jurisdiction over off base conduct, so a serious matter can be investigated by the British police and prosecuted in a British court 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.