What Happens to Air Force Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4) Facing Intimate Image Charges?

Trends › By Offense › Article 117a › Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4)

Based on 13 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Confinement Followed Every Conviction

13 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 13 of those sentences included confinement (100%). The median confinement was 6 months, the same as the median for all Air Force Article 117a cases.

A quarter of the confinement terms were 1 year or longer. These figures are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, including the companion charges described below.

Air Force records rarely list the charges in a case that ends in a full acquittal. The conviction count therefore cannot be read as a conviction rate, and this page gives no acquittal rate.

Punitive Discharges

10 of the 13 convicted members received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (77%). That is slightly less often than the 80% in all Air Force Article 117a cases. 3 of the 10 were dishonorable discharges.

A punitive discharge is part of the court-martial sentence. A sentence without one does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not cover.

Charges Filed Alongside Article 117a

Article 117a was the only charge in 4 of the 13 cases. In the other cases it was paired with at least one more article.

Indecent recording and exposure under Article 120c appeared in 4 cases, and obstruction under Article 131b (numbered since 2019) also appeared in 4. Orders violations under Article 92 appeared in 3. Sexual assault under Article 120 and the general article, Article 134, each appeared in 2.

Court Level and Rank

General courts-martial heard 5 of the 13 cases (38%). Special courts-martial heard the rest. Only a general court-martial can adjudge a dishonorable discharge or more than one year of confinement.

Across all Air Force Article 117a cases, junior enlisted members made up 81% of the accused, so most people tried under this article in the Air Force were E-1 to E-4.

Who Decided Guilt in These Cases?

A military judge alone decided guilt in 12 cases. Members heard 8% of the cases with the forum listed, which was 1 enlisted panel. No officer panel heard any of them. The accused usually chooses between a military judge alone and a panel of members.

When the Cases Were Tried

The records show 3 cases in 2019, 0 in 2020, 1 in 2021, 4 in 2022, 1 in 2023, 3 in 2024, and 1 in 2025. No cases appear in 2016, 2017, or 2018.

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial, and introduced written plea agreements. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel rather than commanders decide whether to prosecute covered offenses, and Article 117a is one of them. Since the records show trial dates only, the trials from 2024 on include both old-rule and new-rule cases.

What These Records Leave Out

The records show charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Air Force records never report plea agreements, and this sheet gives no plea counts for these cases.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

About the author. Jocelyn C. Stewart is a retired Army JAG with more than 24 years of trying courts-martial and more than 200 jury trials. She hosts Where All The Bodies Are Buried and runs the Law Office of Jocelyn C. Stewart. This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.