COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- An Air Force airman, with clearance to enter the Cheyenne Mountain NORAD complex (pictured, right) faces military charges of using LSD, ecstasy and marijuana.

Airman 1st Class Douglas Creighton, 22, is among a dozen airmen from Peterson Air Force Base, Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station and Schriever Air Force Base suspected of being involved in what military officials say is the biggest drug scandal to hit the Colorado Springs-area bases.

Creighton, a member of the 721st Communications Squadron, is accused of taking LSD and ecstasy at all-night rave parties in Colorado Springs and of smoking marijuana in the Peterson dorms. He also is charged with threatening a fellow airman.

If convicted, Creighton could be sentenced to 18 years in prison, dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and fined.

At an Article 32 hearing Tuesday -- similar to a preliminary hearing in civilian court -- an investigator took testimony from airmen who said they were with Creighton when he was on the drugs.

Jason Huchel, who was sentenced in June to five years in prison for dealing drugs, said he saw Creighton at several parties and that he thought Creighton was on drugs.

"His eyes were dilated, and he was sweating," Huchel said, testifying by phone from a correctional facility at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. "He said he was rolling."

On the charge of threatening a fellow airman, Justin Fox, testifying from his home in California, said Creighton showed up at his door one night with two friends drinking 40-ounce bottles of beer and threatened to "leave pieces of my face on the concrete."

Fox said he had never spoken to Creighton before the incident but that he had told some friends he didn't like him because he was always drunk, swore a lot and seemed like "a little violent guy."

The military suspended Creighton's secret clearance once he was suspected of drug use.

The investigator has eight days to recommend whether the military has enough evidence against Creighton to try him.

Five of the 12 Colorado airmen suspected in the drug scandal have been convicted. Four were sentenced to prison, and one was sentenced to 60 days of hard labor at Peterson.

The military investigation into suspected drug use began in June 2000 after local airmen reported suspicious activity and behavior at various bases.