> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.bodiesburied.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # What Happens to Air Force NCOs (E-5 to E-9) Facing Assault Charges? - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-128-ncos/ - Published: 2026-10-28T08:18:31.000Z - Updated: 2026-11-03T01:46:21.000Z - Description: Between 2016 and 2025, 101 Air Force courts-martial charged NCOs (E-5 to E-9) under Article 128, the assault article. NCOs contested their charges more often than the service as a whole: 49% contested, compared with 40%. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Article 128, Air Force [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Offense](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-offense/) › [Article 128](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-128-courts-martial/) › NCOs (E-5 to E-9) **Short answer:** Between 2016 and 2025, 101 Air Force courts-martial charged NCOs (E-5 to E-9) under Article 128, the assault article. NCOs contested their charges more often than the service as a whole: 49% contested, compared with 40%. A smaller share of those convicted received a punitive discharge: 49%, compared with 62% across all Air Force Article 128 cases. Based on 101 cases · 2016–2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Fewer Punitive Discharges for NCOs Of 94 convicted enlisted members, 46 received a punitive discharge, meaning a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of those, 25 were bad-conduct and 21 were dishonorable. Across all Air Force Article 128 cases, the rate was 62%. Convicted NCOs here received a punitive discharge less often than the broader group. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not end the matter. The command can still pursue an administrative separation, and these records do not track that step. ## More Contested Cases The plea is listed in 61 of the 101 records. Of those, 31 accused pleaded guilty and 30 contested at least one charge. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either to all charges or as part of a mixed plea. That is 49% contested, compared with 40% for all Air Force Article 128 cases. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely note a guilty plea, which is why many records here have no plea listed. ## How Long Was the Confinement? Of the 101 cases, 94 ended in conviction on at least one charge, and 78 of those sentences included confinement (83%). The median term was 5 months, about the same as the 6 months across all Air Force Article 128 cases. A quarter of the sentences with confinement were 2 years or longer. Each number is the sentence adjudged at trial. Clemency, an appeal, or a plea-agreement cap can lower it later. The sentence covers every charge in the case, not the assault charge alone. ## Sentence Bands Similar to the Service By band, sentences here were similar to the Air Force pattern. Terms under 6 months made up 43% of convictions, compared with 41%. Terms of 5 years or more were 9% in both groups. Overall, 27 of 94 convictions (29%) included more than one year, the same as the 29% service-wide. The largest difference was in the 6 months to 1 year band: 12% of convictions here, compared with 18% across the service. Sentences with no confinement made up 17%, compared with 13%. | Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, all Air Force Article 128 cases | | ------------------------------- | ----------- | ---------- | -------------------------------------- | | No confinement | 16 | 17% | 13% | | Under 6 months | 40 | 43% | 41% | | 6 months to 1 year | 11 | 12% | 18% | | More than 1 year, under 5 years | 19 | 20% | 20% | | 5 years or more | 8 | 9% | 9% | ## Sentences by Court Level A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge and long confinement. A special court-martial is capped at one year and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge. Of these 101 cases, 65 were general courts-martial and 36 were special courts-martial. The general share was 64%, about the same as the 62% for all Air Force Article 128 cases. Sentences differed by court level. General courts-martial had a median confinement of 1.3 years, and 55% of their cases were contested. Special courts-martial had a median of 3 months, and 39% were contested. ## Panels Heard More of These Cases A military judge alone decided 59 cases. Enlisted panels heard 28 and officer panels 13\. In most cases, the accused chooses the forum. Members decided 41% of cases here, compared with 29% across all Air Force Article 128 cases. Among contested cases, members heard 24 of 30 (80%). Guilty pleas usually go before a military judge alone. The higher share of panels therefore mostly follows the higher share of contested cases. ## Assault Was Usually Charged With Other Offenses Only 38 of the 101 cases charged Article 128 without any other article. Across all Air Force Article 128 cases, the count was 120 of 333. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged with assault in 23 cases, Article 134 (general article) in 22, and Article 92 (orders violation) in 17\. Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) appeared in 8, and Article 115 (malingering before 2019; communicating threats since) in 5\. When assault is charged with sexual assault or domestic violence, it often describes part of the same event, and the sentence covers all of it. ## Years, Installations, and the Law Yearly counts ranged from 4 in 2023 to 19 in 2022\. There were 18 in 2021 and 12 each in 2018 and 2024\. Hill AFB, Utah tried 6 cases. JBSA - Lackland, Texas and FE Warren AFB, Wyoming each tried 5\. JB Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii and JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska each tried 4\. Together they account for 24% of the cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind. The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019\. Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses. Assault is not a covered offense, but special trial counsel who take a covered offense can also take a related assault. The new rules depend on offense dates, so trials from 2024 on include both old-rule and new-rule cases. ## What the Records Do Not Show Air Force records rarely list the charges in a full acquittal, so this page reports no acquittal rate for the offense. The records also leave out plea agreements, offense dates, and the evidence. They say nothing about assaults handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative action. For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see [Article 128 on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com). Dates and sources for the law changes: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Air Force courts-martial tried 2016–2025 that charged NCOs (E-5 to E-9) under Article 128 (101 cases), compared with every Air Force Article 128 case. Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in [Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/), data updated October 24, 2026\. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: [how this data was built](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/how-the-military-trial-results-data-was-built/). Errors: content@bodiesburied.com. ## Related Analysis - [Article 128 (Assault): Court-Martial Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/article-128-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial/) (hub) - [Junior Enlisted (E-1 to E-4) Charged Under Article 128 in the Army](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128-junior-enlisted/) - [What Happens to Army NCOs (E-5 to E-9) Facing Assault Charges?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128-ncos/) - [What Happens to Army Officers Facing Assault Charges?](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128-officers/) - [Army Article 128 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/army-article-128-trend-2021-2025/) - [Fewer or More? Assault Charges at Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-article-128-trend-2016-2025/) - [Article 128 explained on the law firm's website](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) **Compare: federal court.** [Aggravated Assault: Federal Sentences vs. Air Force Courts-Martial, 2016–2025](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/federal-aggravated-assault-vs-air-force/) **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](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/?ref=bodiesburied.com). This analysis is for education and information only. It is not legal advice, and every case is different.