How Has Article 91 Changed in Air Force Courts-Martial Since 2016?
From 2016–2025, Air Force records hold 13 courts-martial that charged Article 91 (insubordination). The median confinement was 7 months, longer than the 4 months for the Air Force as a whole. 69% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 56% Air Force-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 4 min read
Trends › By Offense › Article 91 › Air Force
Short answer: From 2016–2025, Air Force records hold 13 courts-martial that charged Article 91 (insubordination). The median confinement was 7 months, longer than the 4 months for the Air Force as a whole. 69% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 56% Air Force-wide.
Longer Confinement Than the Air Force Median
All 13 sentences in these records included confinement (100%). The median term was 7 months. For all Air Force cases in those years, the median was 4 months. A quarter of the terms in these 13 cases were 1 year or longer.
Each figure is an adjudged sentence, the sentence announced at trial. It comes before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and it covers every charge in the case.
Bad-Conduct and Dishonorable Discharges
9 of the 13 convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge (69%). 2 of those 9 were dishonorable discharges, and the rest were bad-conduct discharges. The rate for all Air Force cases in those years was 56%.
A sentence with no punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation later. These records do not track administrative separations.
Insubordination Was Never the Only Charge
None of the 13 cases charged Article 91 by itself. Article 92 (orders violation) was the most common other charge, in 6 cases. Article 112a (drug) appeared in 5. Article 128 (assault), Article 134 (general article), and Article 86 (AWOL) each appeared in 4.
Pleas and the Forum
10 of the 13 records list a plea: 5 guilty pleas and 5 contested cases. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share, 50%, is about the same as the 48% for the rest of the Air Force.
A military judge alone decided 12 of the 13 cases. Members heard only 1 case (8%), with an enlisted panel. No officer panel appears.
Rank and Court Level
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 92% of the accused, NCOs were 8%, and officers were 0%. Across the Air Force, junior enlisted members were 62% of the accused.
5 of the 13 cases were general courts-martial (38%). The rest were special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Cases by Year
The first case in these records was tried in October 2018 and the last in November 2025. The count was 0 in 2016 and 2017, 2 in 2018, 0 in 2019 and 2020, 3 in 2021, 1 in 2022, 3 in 2023, 2 in 2024, and 2 in 2025.
Article 91 was part of 2 of 786 Air Force convictions in 2016–2018 (0%) and 7 of 494 in 2023–2025 (1%), a larger share. The peak yearly number of convictions including the article was 3, in 2023.
What Is Not in These Records
Air Force records rarely list charges in cases that end in a full acquittal, so this page reports no acquittal rate for Article 91. They never report plea agreements, and from 2016 to 2019 they rarely list a guilty plea. Insubordination handled by nonjudicial punishment does not appear.
| Year | Convictions incl. Art. 91 | All convictions with offenses listed | Share |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 0 | 205 | 0% |
| 2017 | 0 | 294 | 0% |
| 2018 | 2 | 287 | 1% |
| 2019 | 0 | 271 | 0% |
| 2020 | 0 | 186 | 0% |
| 2021 | 2 | 202 | 1% |
| 2022 | 1 | 208 | 0% |
| 2023 | 3 | 152 | 2% |
| 2024 | 2 | 173 | 1% |
| 2025 | 2 | 169 | 1% |
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial tried 2016–2025 that charged Article 91 (13 cases). The trend line uses convictions whose records list the offenses found, by trial year.
Source: public court-martial records (Article 140a, UCMJ) in Military Trial Results, data updated October 24, 2026. Definitions, sources, and known gaps: how this data was built. Errors: content@bodiesburied.com.
Related Analysis
- Article 91 (Insubordinate Conduct Toward NCO): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Offense (hub)
- Fewer or More? Insubordination Charges at Army Courts-Martial, 2021–2025 (another service)
- How Has Article 91 Changed in Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial Since 2017? (another service)
- Air Force Article 109 Cases by the Numbers, 2016–2025
- Air Force Article 113 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025
- Air Force Article 115 Cases by the Numbers, 2021–2025
- How Much Confinement for an Article 91 Conviction in the Air Force?
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.