At a Glance: Eglin AFB
- Installation: Eglin Air Force Base, in the Florida Panhandle next to Niceville and Valparaiso.
- Major commands: the 96th Test Wing, the 33rd Fighter Wing and the Army's 7th Special Forces Group.
- Investigators: Air Force OSI for Airmen and Army CID for Soldiers. Off base, Niceville, Valparaiso and Crestview police and the Okaloosa County sheriff.
- Free defense counsel: the Area Defense Counsel for Airmen and Army TDS for Soldiers.
- Who decides on charges: on covered offenses such as sexual assault and domestic violence, the Department of the Air Force or Army Office of Special Trial Counsel decides; your commander decides the rest.
- Civilian courts: an off-base arrest can bring a Florida prosecution as well as a court martial, because the state and the military are separate sovereigns.
- Where we fit: hired civilian counsel under UCMJ Article 38(b), with your detailed military defense counsel kept on the case. Tim Bilecki, defending service members since 2003, has taken more than 250 courts martial to verdict.
Eglin AFB: The Air Force's Largest Proving Ground
On the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle, Eglin Air Force Base sits on the largest reservation in the Air Force, the home of the 96th Test Wing, which tests and evaluates nearly every weapon the Air Force drops or fires. It is a joint installation: the Army's 7th Special Forces Group, the Green Berets, is based here, and the tri-service Explosive Ordnance Disposal school trains Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines on the range. The people stationed here work with weapons, ordnance, and test programs every day, and they live the good life of the Panhandle when they are off, with Airmen and families in Niceville, Valparaiso, and Crestview and the sugar-white sand of Destin and Fort Walton Beach a short drive away. A command running the testing and special operations missions that ride on Eglin will move hard against anyone who threatens them.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and service members fly us in from around the world, to Okinawa, Germany, and Korea, because when a career is on the line they want the firm with the trial record, not the nearest office. For Eglin, that firm is practically in your backyard, a short flight up the Florida coast from our Tampa office.
For how Florida law and the UCMJ work together, and for every other stateside installation we cover, see our page for court martial defense in the United States. We also defend service members at nearby Hurlburt Field, NAS Pensacola and Tyndall Air Force Base.
The Green Beret Who Held the Camp
Eglin is home to the 7th Special Forces Group, and the Special Forces standard was set by Captain Roger H.C. Donlon at Nam Dong in 1964. When his Special Forces camp was overrun in a night assault, Donlon moved through the fire from position to position, dragging wounded men to cover, knocking out an enemy team at the gate, and directing the defense though he was hit again and again. He held the camp until dawn. He became the first Medal of Honor recipient of the Vietnam War and the first ever awarded to a Special Forces Soldier. He would not give up the camp or the men inside it. That refusal to give ground is the standard we bring to a case at Eglin.
Why Service Members at Eglin Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Testers, special operators, Soldiers and Airmen at Eglin retain us for courtroom experience, and we come up the Gulf Coast from Tampa for the case. The military justice system is not built to find the truth; it exists to preserve good order and discipline, and a command running sensitive testing and special operations work will make an example of someone to prove it holds the line. OSI is the investigator on serious Air Force cases at Eglin, with Army CID or NCIS for a Soldier or Sailor, and the referral decision on sexual assault and the other covered offenses sits with the independent Special Trial Counsel for your service instead of your commander. Service members at Eglin who plan to win usually bring in their own lawyer as well, since free detailed counsel can be capable but overloaded inside the same system.
The Eglin Legal Office, the ADC and a Lawyer of Your Own
Eglin is the largest Air Force base by area, and its legal office serves the 96th Test Wing and the commands that test and train there. That office advises commanders, provides legal assistance and prosecutes cases. It does not represent you. The Area Defense Counsel does, at no cost, through a defense chain that answers outside the wing.
If OSI has called, call the ADC before you answer questions. If the case is going to a court martial, Article 38(b) of the UCMJ lets you add civilian counsel while the ADC stays on as associate counsel. We tell Airmen plainly when the ADC can handle a matter alone.
UCMJ Charges We Defend at Eglin Air Force Base
We take on the full range of court martial charges. Below are the ones that come up most often at Eglin Air Force Base.
Sexual Assault and Sex Offenses (UCMJ Article 120 / Article 134). The decision on these cases at Eglin is made by the independent Special Trial Counsel for your service, though the command often acts on the report before the investigation is finished. Early, independent investigation is how we begin, and we contest the case from there. See our Article 120 sexual assault defense page.
Domestic Violence and Assault (UCMJ Articles 128b and 128). From Niceville, Valparaiso and Crestview homes, domestic violence allegations are prosecuted by the Office of Special Trial Counsel, and lack of injury is no bar to a strangulation charge. A qualifying conviction also brings the federal firearms bar. See our Article 128b domestic violence defense page.
Larceny and Government Property (UCMJ Articles 121 and 108). A test base and a special operations group are issued an enormous amount of weapons, optics, sensitive equipment, and controlled material, and accountability is unforgiving. A missing weapon, optics that cannot be reconciled, or test equipment that walked off may be charged as larceny under Article 121 or as wrongful disposition of military property under Article 108, but a hand receipt shortage is not theft, and intent, or negligence where Article 108 allows it, must still be proven.
Drugs and Off Duty Conduct (UCMJ Articles 112a and 134). Eglin drug cases tend to hinge on collection and custody, and on whether the government can prove knowing, wrongful use. How the sample was collected and handled and whether any use was knowing are where these cases are decided, and a positive urinalysis is evidence the government may use to argue knowing, wrongful use, not an automatic finding of guilt. We have beaten these on the collection itself, including a drug case at Eglin defeated on an unconstitutional urinalysis, with no charges, no nonjudicial punishment, and the member retained. Do not assume a positive test is the end of it.
A Career and a Reputation Worth Defending
We do not pretend that every client is innocent. If a matter is genuinely minor, your detailed military counsel can handle it, and we will tell you so. When the case is serious, your career, your retirement, your name and your freedom are on the line at once. A court martial conviction is a federal criminal conviction. Where the sentencing parameters apply, the judge sentences within a confinement range set by the offense, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, and must state specific facts in writing to go outside it. A conviction can also bring 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 Eglin Air Force Base, reach out for a free defense strategy session. We will tell you what you are facing and how we would defend it.
Cases Connected to Eglin Air Force Base
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: Bilecki Defeats Article 112a Drug Pop on Junior Sailor at Eglin AFB by Exposing Unconstitutional Mass Urinalysis Order; No Charges Preferred, No NJP, No Captain's Mast, No Administrative Separation, Sailor Retained on Active Duty
FAQ
OSI or CID wants to interview me at Eglin. Do I have to talk to them?
No. Under Article 31(b) of the UCMJ, military investigators who question you as a suspect must tell you the nature of the accusation, that you have the right to remain silent, and that anything you say can be used against you. You may decline the interview and ask for a lawyer. Call a defense lawyer before you say anything.
I had a positive urinalysis. Is the case already lost?
No. A positive test is a permissive inference, not proof, and these cases are won and lost on how the sample was collected, labeled, stored, and tested, and on whether the government can prove the use was knowing and wrongful. A break in the chain of custody or an unlawful collection can knock the test out entirely. We have done exactly that at Eglin, where a drug case was defeated on an unconstitutional urinalysis with no charges and the member retained. Get counsel before you make any admission to investigators.
I'm in a special operations or sensitive unit and I'm under investigation. Can it cost me my clearance even if I beat the charge?
It can, because your access and the court martial run on separate tracks with separate standards. A command or security manager who learns of a serious allegation can suspend your access before anything is proven, and revoking a clearance is a separate administrative process that we do not handle. But that process runs on what the criminal investigation finds, so the most important thing you can do to protect your access is to fight the underlying allegation hard from the start, which is what we do.