Hurlburt Field is on Florida’s Emerald Coast, just west of Eglin Air Force Base and a short drive from Fort Walton Beach. The base is surrounded by the white sands and turquoise water that make this region one of the most recognizable stretches of the Gulf Coast. From the air, the airfield seems almost hidden between barrier islands and inland bays, but it functions as one of the most important platforms in the entire Department of Defense.
As headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC), Hurlburt is the organization responsible for training, equipping, and deploying the Air Force’s special operations forces. These units execute missions that include precision strike, global access, and personnel recovery in hostile or denied territory. The base supports a combination of active-duty, reserve, and civilian personnel whose work connects directly to U.S. operations across multiple combatant commands.
The 1st Special Operations Wing is the host unit and remains the oldest and most storied wing in AFSOC. Its aircraft, including the AC-130J Ghostrider gunship, CV-22B Osprey, MC-130J Commando II, and U-28A Draco, give the United States exceptional flexibility in unconventional warfare. These platforms are capable of flying low, striking with precision, and delivering personnel and equipment into austere environments without the need for prepared runways. Training for these missions happens constantly, both on the base itself and over the extensive ranges of the Gulf Coast.
Hurlburt also houses several tenant organizations that provide the foundation for Air Force and joint special operations. These include the Air Force Special Operations Air Warfare Center, which develops tactics and integrates new technology across the command, and elements of the 24th Special Operations Wing, which provides combat control, pararescue, and special tactics capabilities. The presence of these units means that Hurlburt operates as both a command headquarters and a forward staging platform. It is one of the few installations in the country where strategic leadership and tactical execution exist side by side.
The surrounding region reflects that dual identity. Fort Walton Beach and neighboring Destin are well known as tourist destinations, but they also carry a deep military heritage. Generations of service members have lived, trained, and deployed from this stretch of coastline. The community around Hurlburt is full of veterans, retirees, and defense contractors.
The geography of the Panhandle makes the area ideal for special operations. The nearby Gulf of Mexico provides over-water training routes, while the vast forests and marshes of the Florida Panhandle offer realistic terrain for low-level navigation and insertion training.
The constant operational churn at Hurlburt, combined with frequent joint mission planning, brings intense focus from leadership and produces a high volume of disciplinary cases under the UCMJ. When the government assigns its most experienced prosecutors to a case, it happens at bases like Hurlburt, where misconduct threatens global mission readiness. The Office of Special Trial Counsel (OSTC) now drives charging decisions for felony-level offenses, including sexual misconduct and domestic violence. Cases once kept in-house are now brought to a General Court-Martial. If you are stationed at Hurlburt Field and facing UCMJ action, call us for a free case evaluation.
Computer Crimes: CSAM Investigation and Intent
Computer crimes under the UCMJ are aggressively prosecuted at Hurlburt Field, especially cases with digital evidence or CSAM under Article 134.
Q: I’m being investigated for CSAM under Article 134. What is the biggest danger from a military forensic investigation?
A: The biggest danger is that investigators are not just analyzing files; they are building a case based on reconstructing your intent. They are using three specific techniques that create the most severe consequences:
Recovering Old Data: They bypass your basic deletion methods. Forensic analysis can pull up fragments or entire copies of files you thought were gone forever, even those deleted years ago, from hidden areas of your hard drive and system files (memory dumps). They are proving the data was present.
Financial Links to Intent: They scrutinize financial records for payments to VPN services, anonymous servers, or forums known to traffic in illicit content. These financial links prove criminal intent, not accidental discovery.
The Anti-Forensics Signal: Any attempt to cover your tracks is used as direct evidence of guilt. The presence and use of disk-wiping utilities, strong encryption, or complex VPNs are flagged as powerful circumstantial evidence of guilty knowledge and an attempt to obstruct justice. You cannot hide from their specialized tools; attempting to hide only proves the necessary intent to conceal.
Horseplay and the UCMJ Don’t Mix
Q: How can a joke or prank turn into a sex-crime charge?
A: More easily than most Airmen realize. The UCMJ doesn’t make room for “we were just joking.” Under military law, any act done to shock, degrade, or assert control over another person’s body can count as abusive sexual contact, even when no sexual gratification is involved.
At Hurlburt, where crews work in close quarters and the line between humor and hazing can blur, this becomes especially dangerous. What starts as “shop talk” or a rough joke can escalate into a charge sheet overnight once a complaint hits command.
A well-known case involved an Air Force instructor who ordered trainees to apply a heat gel to their genitals as punishment. There was no sexual motive, only humiliation (“training”), yet the panel convicted him of abusive sexual contact under Article 120. He received no confinement, but the conviction ended his career and landed him on a sex-offender registry.
The same pattern plays out with “nut-taps,” wedgies, and other physical pranks that get passed off as tradition. If the act includes unwanted touching or humiliation, it can be charged as a sex crime. Just kidding doesn’t survive contact with a courtroom.
Q: If there’s no proof of sexual intent, can the charge be beaten?
A: Even if prosecutors can’t prove intent to humiliate or arouse, the same facts usually satisfy the elements of assault under Article 128. You don’t need a sexual motive to commit an assault, only an unlawful touching that causes offense or harm.
In a barracks or hangar environment, that means any physical contact made to “make a point” can qualify: a shove, a slap, a towel snap, a prank. A panel might reject the sex-crime theory and still convict on assault. Either way, it ends with punishment, a ruined record, and a permanent mark on your reputation.
The Cases That Demand Full-Time Experience
We have represented military clients for more than twenty years. Our court-martial work began when we joined the JAG Corps shortly after 9/11. We never took administrative tours or stepped away from the courtroom. Hurlburt Field, Eglin, and the rest of the Gulf Coast have been steady parts of that history.
Our federal criminal defense experience is extensive, and that background has become even more important as the UCMJ has adopted many of the same procedures used in federal court. While others are still adapting to that model, we have been operating within it for years.
Over that time, we have defended Airmen and other service members against every serious charge in the military code: sexual misconduct under Articles 120, 120b, and 120c; child enticement and CSAM allegations under Article 134; larceny, DITY fraud, and other financial crimes; assault, domestic violence, and homicide cases; and child abuse under Article 119b. We have also handled claims of abuse between former partners, officer misconduct under Article 133, and cases with false or exaggerated allegations of stolen valor.
During the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, we saw the kinds of cases that only arise in combat environments, including desertion from deployment and offenses tied to operational stress. That experience built our firm’s reputation for taking the hardest cases and seeing them through.
The Value of Our Advocacy
You will work directly with a partner attorney (Keith Scherer, Greg Gagne), not a junior attorney, call screener, or chat program.
Flat Fee Structure: We use a flat-fee billing structure because it creates a tension-free, case-focused relationship.
Total Coverage: A “flat” fee, as we define it, means everything is included for the stage you are paying for. That includes every call, text, and email with your attorney, and every communication with prosecutors, command, or experts. All legal research, strategy, and planning are included.
Cost Control: If travel is required to represent you in person in the Florida Panhandle, those costs will be billed separately according to terms in the agreement.
The AFSOC Command: Expertise Rooted in National Experience
Q: Have you handled a high volume of UCMJ cases at AFSOC bases?
A: Yes. We have done many cases at Hurlburt specifically, and we have represented warfighters across the services, including a number of SEALs and Rangers.
Case Depth: Almost all of our cases here have been serious, related to Article 120 Sexual Assault, Article 133 Conduct Unbecoming an Officer, various sex offenses concerning minors (Article 120b and 134), domestic violence, and complex fraud.
The Experience Advantage: Unlike firms with limited experience, we have managed courts-martial across five presidential administrations, through natural disasters, and during the operational high-tempo of the GWOT. This history gives us a thorough understanding of the command climate and the legal offices across the entire Special Operations region.
Q: Why hire your firm instead of a local attorney from the Florida Panhandle?
A: There are lawyers in Florida, including some who handle UCMJ cases full time. That isn’t the point. The question is why an Airman facing court-martial would hire anyone other than us.
We are trial lawyers, not general practitioners. Every case we take is a military criminal case. We built our careers in the JAG Corps after 9/11 and have been in the courtroom ever since. Our work is national in scope, defending service members under the UCMJ.
You get two senior attorneys with more than twenty years of experience, for the cost most firms charge for one. We’ve handled cases in every service, at every level of severity, across the country and overseas.
Local presence does not equal competence. Proximity doesn’t win cases; judgment, skill, and depth of experience do. When the command assigns its best prosecutors, you need the same on your side. Hiring anyone else because they are nearby is a mistake you can’t afford to make.
Q: I was told to waive my right to an Article 32 hearing because it’s a waste of time. Is it?
A: If your case is headed for a General Court-Martial, you have the right to an Article 32 hearing, a preliminary hearing where the prosecution must justify moving forward to trial. The proceeding is handled by a JAG referred to as the Preliminary Hearing Officer (PHO). The PHO’s job is to decide if there is probable cause, if the charges are legally valid, and if the case should go to trial or be handled some other way.
Some junior attorneys advise their clients to waive the hearing. They argue it is merely a formality and a waste of time, since the probable cause burden is so low. This advice is unfortunate.
Yes, the preponderance standard is easy for the government to meet; it just means more likely than not. Still, the hearing serves other key defense purposes:
- Stress-Test the Story: It is a chance to see how a neutral trial lawyer responds to the prosecution’s evidence.
- Influencing OSTC: While the PHO’s recommendations are not binding, their doubts can influence OSTC and others in the decision-making process. Probable cause is the standard under review at this hearing, but the PHO will note issues that might limit the prosecution’s ability to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. The notion that it’s just a probable cause hearing misses something very important.
- Gaining Intelligence: It puts everyone in the same room, giving your attorney a chance to observe personalities and priorities and cash in on the diplomacy that’s been built with OSTC during the investigation.
We have had many cases dismissed after the Article 32 phase, even when we did not dispute probable cause. That never would have happened if the hearing had been waived. If someone tells you to skip the Article 32, get another opinion first.
An Airman’s Pocket Guide to the Mistake of Fact Defense in An Article 120 Case
- Definition: A claim that the accused honestly and reasonably believed the other person agreed to the act.
- Reasonableness: Measured against what a cautious, sober person would have understood in that situation.
- Alcohol: Your intoxication doesn’t make poor judgment seem reasonable. The other person’s level of intoxication, however, is hugely important.
- Blackouts: A blackout means the person was functioning but later can’t recall events. That’s far different from being unconscious. An accuser’s “blackout” sounds worse but it’s better for you.
- Vomiting: If someone becomes ill, dizzy, or incoherent, continuing any sexual contact is no longer reasonable, regardless of what they say in the moment.
- Relationships: Prior intimacy does not equal automatic consent. Each encounter stands on its own, even within marriage.
- “Sunrise Surprise” Cases: Acts meant as affection can still be charged as assault if consent wasn’t clear and current. They can’t consent if they’re asleep.
- Age: Any belief about age must come from real information, not assumption, optimism, or wishful thinking.
- Purpose: This defense exists for true misunderstandings, not for ignoring warning signs or rewriting what happened after the fact.
Does Hurlburt Field’s Mission Generate Significant UCMJ Activity?
Yes. Hurlburt Field is an operational base with multiple high-tempo commands. That type of environment tends to generate the most scrutiny, the most formal discipline, and the most serious charges. Bases like Hurlburt get the most experienced prosecutors from OSTC, and they tend to see a consistent volume of courts-martial, Article 32 hearings, and administrative actions.
If you are facing a UCMJ issue at Hurlburt, you are not alone. You will receive the services of a free Area Defense Counsel, but you are in a location where the system takes these cases seriously, and the prosecution has essentially unlimited resources. An ADC might not be enough for an effective counterpunch.
Why Your Lawyer Must Engage Now, Not Wait for Charges
The standard advice from most defense lawyers is to stay out of sight and don’t get into any trouble.
The problem is, while you are keeping a low profile, the prosecution apparatus is moving at full speed. Silence is smart, but it’s not a case strategy. Doing nothing during this phase can seal your fate.
Disrupting Momentum: Taking action early doesn’t mean being obnoxious. It means finding ways to communicate with leadership and investigators. It means probing for information, developing rapport, and leaning into the subtler side of persuasion.
Enlist OSTC: OSTC attorneys do not like to lose. If your attorney can help develop doubt about the case being proven beyond a reasonable doubt, sooner rather than later, OSTC will often be a fair audience. That can be the difference between a court-martial and a non-criminal resolution.
Psychological Value: Any stage of the case can be overwhelming. Knowing that a highly experienced, steady, mature military attorney is advocating for you provides relief. Clients often report their mindset improved significantly as soon as we stepped in. That psychological relief is the most important initial benefit you will receive.
Military Trial Jargon
The Special Court-Martial
A Special Court-Martial is similar in scope to a civilian misdemeanor case. The military does not label crimes as misdemeanors, but the 12-month limit on confinement makes this level comparable. Punishment can include jail time, reduction in rank, loss of pay, and a Bad-Conduct Discharge.
While the ceiling is lower than a General Court-Martial, the damage is severe. The damage to a military career will almost certainly be permanent, and the limitations placed on you in civilian life could last forever. Once underway, a Special Court-Martial proceeds with the same intensity and seriousness as any full trial.
The General Court-Martial
This is the big arena of the military justice system. It is used for serious charges, including sexual assault, aggravated domestic violence, large-scale drug cases, and crimes against children. Nearly all officer cases go to this level, regardless of the specific charge. OSTC typically handles the prosecution.
Penalties can be severe and might include many years of confinement or even life in prison. Civilian courts almost always classify a conviction at this level as a felony. Conviction of a sexual offense in a military trial will trigger sex offender registration requirements in the civilian sector.
Speak to a UCMJ Lawyer today about your case at Hurlburt Field or any military base in the Florida Panhandle
If you are facing UCMJ charges or a court-martial at Hurlburt Field, call us at 800-319-3134 for a free consultation. We’ve defended Airmen at Hurlburt Field, Eglin, Tyndall, Pensacola NAS, and U.S. installations across the country for over 20 years and look forward to helping you clear your name.