MacDill Air Force Base: Two Combatant Commands in Our Own City
On the Interbay peninsula in South Tampa, MacDill Air Force Base is home to the 6th Air Refueling Wing and its KC-135 Stratotankers, but its real weight is the two combatant command headquarters it hosts: U.S. Central Command, which runs the wars and operations across the Middle East, and U.S. Special Operations Command, which oversees every special operations force in the military. That makes MacDill one of the most senior and most joint installations in the country, full of flag officers, special operators, intelligence professionals, planners, and coalition partners from across the world, alongside the tanker wing that keeps the fleet airborne. It sits on Tampa Bay with the city, the beaches, and the bay all around it. A base this central to how the nation fights will protect its standards and move hard against a service member who steps wrong.
Military defense is all Bilecki Law Group does. Service members fly us in from every corner of the world, but MacDill is the exception: it is in our own city. Our office is right here in Tampa, minutes away, and the same trial record that takes us to courtrooms across the globe is available to the men and women stationed in our backyard.
The Florida Soldier Who Went Back Into the Fire
The standard here belongs to one of Florida's own, Sergeant First Class Alwyn C. Cashe, who grew up in Oviedo and fought in CENTCOM's war in Iraq. On October 17, 2005, near Samarra, an explosion tore into his Bradley and soaked him in fuel, and as he pulled the driver out his own uniform caught fire. Engulfed in flames and suffering catastrophic burns, Cashe went back into the burning vehicle again and again to drag out his trapped soldiers, refusing to stop until every man was accounted for. He gave his life weeks later from those wounds. A Florida son who walked back into the fire for his men is the standard we bring to a case at MacDill.
Why Service Members at MacDill Bring Us In
We win court martial cases. Military defense is all we do, and service members bring us in 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 two combatant-command headquarters will make an example of someone to protect their image. The population here is senior and joint, so a career built on reputation and a clearance can be put at risk by an allegation that never reaches a courtroom, and for the tanker aircrew a Flying Evaluation Board can pull you off flying status on a standard far below a conviction. A serious case is investigated by the Office of Special Investigations, Army CID, or NCIS depending on your service, 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. The free military defense counsel 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 MacDill Air Force Base
The charges below are the ones we see most often at MacDill, 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 at a headquarters where appearances matter. 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 military career because a service member has to be able to carry a weapon. We also defend assault under Article 128, where self defense is a recognized defense.
Conduct Unbecoming and False Official Statements (UCMJ Articles 133 and 107). A senior, joint headquarters sees the charges that end senior careers. Conduct unbecoming an officer under Article 133 is deliberately broad, reaching an improper relationship, a financial impropriety, or an off duty incident the government says discredits the officer, and a false official statement under Article 107 turns a single answer to an investigator or an entry on an official document into a federal crime. These are reputation cases as much as proof cases, and the government still has to prove the words were false, official, and meant to deceive, or that the conduct actually crossed the line, not merely that a senior officer's judgment is being second-guessed.
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. Marijuana is medical only in Florida and a positive test is still a court martial offense under Article 112a, and for the cleared and special operations population here a drug allegation carries consequences well beyond the criminal case. 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 service member who calls us from MacDill is innocent. What matters is how serious the case is, not your rank. If a matter is genuinely minor, your free military 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 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 MacDill Air Force Base, reach out for a free, confidential strategy session. We are right here in Tampa, and 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 MacDill 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: Case Result: Defense Victory Bilecki Saves Lt. Colonel
- Case connected to this location: Army LTC Avoids AMHRR Filing After USCENTCOM Workplace Investigation
- Case connected to this location: 6105 Imposed After MRF-Darwin Bar Comment; No Administrative Separation, No Further Adverse Action
- Case connected to this location: General Court-Martial Charges Withdrawn and Dismissed After Florida Declined Child Sexual Abuse Prosecution; GOMOR Permanently Filed After New Commanding General Withdrew From Signed Article 15 Agreement
- Case connected to this location: Bilecki Holds Florida Reverse Prostitution Sting and Army Article 134 Pandering GOMOR for Army Intelligence Major at MacDill to GOMOR Filing Only; Florida Case Dismissed via Nolle Prosequi, TS/SCI Retained, No Show Cause Board, No BOI
FAQ
An investigator wants to interview me at MacDill. Do I have to talk to them?
No. Under Article 31b of the UCMJ you have the right to remain silent and to a lawyer, and you can invoke both before the interview begins, whether the agent is from OSI, CID, or NCIS. Investigators are gathering evidence, not offering a chance to explain, and a single statement can drive the criminal case, a clearance review, and a flying-status action all at once. Decline, ask for your service's defense counsel or your own lawyer, and say nothing until you have one.
I'm a senior officer at a combatant command. Can one allegation end my career without a conviction?
It can. A senior officer's career runs on reputation and a clean record, so a conduct unbecoming or false official statement allegation can trigger a memorandum of reprimand, a referral, and a show cause board that run on a far lower standard than a court martial, and any of those can force retirement or separation. That is why the underlying allegation has to be fought early and on every front, and we defend the criminal case and the officer elimination exposure together.
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 investigators.