Fort Jackson: Where the Army Makes Its Soldiers
In the Midlands of South Carolina, on the edge of Columbia, Fort Jackson is the Army's largest Basic Combat Training installation, the place where roughly half of all new Soldiers are made. It is also an Army post set inside a city, so the recruits doing the hardest weeks of their lives can see the skyline of Columbia they cannot yet reach. The drill sergeants who train them, the permanent party who run the post, and the families who settle here live in the capital of South Carolina, with the University of South Carolina and the Gamecocks, Lake Murray, and a summer that bakes in the nineties under heavy Midlands humidity. A command responsible for turning civilians into Soldiers will protect that mission hard and move fast against anyone who threatens it.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does, and Soldiers fly us in from around the world for these cases, to Okinawa, Germany, and Korea, when a career is on the line and only a trial record will save it. We are not the lawyer down the road from Jackson, but we are close, a short flight from our Tampa office.
The Soldier Who Took the Hill
Fort Jackson makes Soldiers, and the standard was set by one made on this very ground, Corporal Freddie Stowers, who trained at Camp Jackson before shipping to France in the First World War. On September 28, 1918, on Hill 188, when his company was raked by machine gun fire and the senior leaders fell, Stowers took command, reorganized the survivors, and led them up the slope into the guns, knocking out the first nest before he was mortally wounded, still pushing the assault forward. He was the first African American Soldier to receive the Medal of Honor for the First World War, though the recognition took decades to come. He took the lead when the leaders went down. That willingness to carry the assault when no one else could is the standard we bring to a case at Jackson.
Why Soldiers at Jackson Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and Soldiers 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 runs the Army's largest training mission will make an example of a Soldier or a cadre member to protect that mission's image. 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 Fort Jackson
Whatever you have been accused of under the UCMJ, we defend it. The list below just reflects the charges we see most at Fort Jackson.
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 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 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 an Army career because a Soldier has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, the usual charge when a night out in Columbia ends in a fight, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Trainee Maltreatment and Improper Relationships (UCMJ Articles 93 and 92). The defining cases on the Army's largest basic training post involve the line between a drill sergeant and a trainee. The government charges maltreatment of a subordinate under Article 93 and a violation of the trainee-protection and no-contact rules under Article 92, and at an initial-entry post it will move on a single recruit's complaint. The relationships and the rules are real, but so are the defenses, because the government still has to prove the conduct, the position of authority, and an actual broken rule, not just that an accusation was made.
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 Columbia that ends badly comes back to the command, and a positive urinalysis is one of the most common ways a young Soldier's career comes apart. 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 Soldier who calls us from Jackson 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 applicable military sentencing parameters set a confinement range the judge has to work within, two and a half to ten years for sexual assault and ten to twenty for rape, with any departure requiring specific facts in writing, plus 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 Fort Jackson, 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.
Cases Connected to Fort Jackson
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: Army SSG Cleared of Sexual Assault, Sentence for False Statement Suspended
- Trial venue: After 8 Hours of Duress, Soldier Falsely Confesses to Sex Assault, Gets 18 Months
- Case connected to this location: No Article 120c or Article 117a Charges; Article 134 GOMOR Locally Filed; Major Promotion and Cornell MBA Career Preserved
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Closes AR 15-6 Toxic Leadership Investigation on Army CPT at Fort Jackson with No Adverse Action; Returned to Command
FAQ
Army CID wants to interview me at Jackson. 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 a drill sergeant accused of maltreating a trainee. What am I facing?
An Article 93 maltreatment charge, and at a basic training post the command treats an accusation against a drill sergeant as a threat to the whole mission, so it investigates hard and charges aggressively. But the government has to prove the real elements: that the trainee was subject to your orders, and that what you did was objectively cruel, abusive, or unwarranted, not the lawful, demanding training a basic training environment is built to deliver. That line is where these cases are fought, and a training company is stressful by design, so the facts and the context matter enormously. Get your own counsel before you give a statement to CID.
A 15-6 investigation was opened over a leadership or toxic-command complaint. Can it end my career?
It can, because an AR 15-6 investigation can recommend adverse action that follows you for years, even when the underlying complaint is thin or driven by personalities. But it is an administrative proceeding, and the answer is a strong, documented rebuttal that puts the real facts in front of the decision-maker. We have done exactly that at Jackson, where a toxic-leadership 15-6 ended in no adverse action after the rebuttal. Do not answer a 15-6 alone, and do not assume the investigating officer has the full picture.