What the Air Force Tried in December 2018
The Air Force tried 30 courts-martial in December 2018, the last month before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect. Punitive discharges followed 70% of enlisted convictions, compared with 58% for the year.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Year › December 2018
Short answer: The Air Force tried 30 courts-martial in December 2018, the last month before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect. Punitive discharges followed 70% of enlisted convictions, compared with 58% for the year. Sexual assault under Article 120 appeared in 21% of cases with a charge list, compared with 12% for the year.
More Punitive Discharges Than the Year
For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge. In December 2018, 70% of enlisted convictions included one: 11 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. For the Air Force across 2018, the rate was 58%.
The month's 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, and these records do not include those separations.
Sexual Assault and Orders Charges Were More Common
Charges are listed for 24 of the 30 cases, and one case can appear under several articles. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in 5 cases (21%), compared with 12% for the year. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, also appeared in 5 cases (21%), compared with 15%.
Article 134, the general article, also appeared in 5 cases, but its 21% share is lower than the annual 27%. Drug charges under Article 112a were the most common charge, in 12 cases (50%), about the same as the 47% for the year. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 3 cases and Article 120b in 2. Article 91 (insubordinate conduct toward an NCO) and Article 86 (AWOL) each appeared in 1 case.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 12 | 50% | 47% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 5 | 21% | 12% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 5 | 21% | 15% |
| Art. 134 General article | 5 | 21% | 27% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 3 | 12% | 10% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 8% | 12% |
| Art. 91 Insubordinate conduct toward NCO | 1 | 4% | 1% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 1 | 4% | 3% |
No Terms Between 6 Months and 1 Year
Of 24 convictions, 67% included confinement. The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the annual median. A quarter of the terms were 2 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and they cover all charges in the case.
No conviction had a term between 6 months and 1 year. For the year, 13% of convictions had a term in that range. In December 2018, 33% of convictions included no confinement, compared with 18% for the year. Terms of 5 years or more came in 3 convictions (12%), compared with 8%. Terms longer than one year came in 4 of 24 convictions (17%), compared with 20%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2018 |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 8 | 33% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 12 | 50% | 48% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 0 | 0% | 13% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 1 | 4% | 12% |
| 5 years or more | 3 | 12% | 8% |
Longer Terms at General Courts-Martial
A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence. A special court-martial cannot impose more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. The month had 14 general and 16 special courts-martial. The general share was 47%, compared with 50% for the year.
At general courts-martial, 60% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 3.7 years. At special courts-martial, 71% did, with a median of 3 months.
Full Acquittals at About the Annual Rate
In 6 of the 30 cases, the accused was acquitted of all charges (20%). The rate for the Air Force in 2018 was 22%. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely note guilty pleas, so this rate is measured against all cases, not only contested cases.
Who Decided Guilt?
The accused usually decides whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members decided 40% of the month's cases: 7 with officer panels and 5 with enlisted panels. A military judge alone decided the other 18.
An enlisted accused can ask for enlisted members on the panel. Otherwise the members are officers. Guilty pleas are rarely recorded for this period, so the forum figures cannot be compared with the number of contested cases.
Compared With December 2017
December 2017 had 31 cases, and December 2018 had 30. The median confinement was 4 months in both months. Convictions with confinement went from 69% to 67%, and the general court-martial share went from 45% to 47%. The punitive discharge rate for enlisted members went from 48% to 70%.
Small monthly groups can change by a large amount with a few cases. This comparison shows direction rather than precise change.
| December 2017 | December 2018 | |
|---|---|---|
| Cases | 31 | 30 |
| Contested (of pleas recorded) | — | — |
| Convictions with confinement | 69% | 67% |
| Median confinement | 4 months | 4 months |
| Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 48% | 70% |
| General courts-martial | 45% | 47% |
Who Was Tried, and Where
The accused were 18 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 10 NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 2 officers or warrant officers. That mix was similar to the Air Force in 2018, where junior enlisted members were 63% of the accused.
Moody AFB, Georgia, and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, each tried 3 cases. JBSA - Lackland, Texas, and Maxwell AFB, Alabama, tried 2 each, and Sheppard AFB, Texas, tried 1. Together these bases account for 37% of the month's cases. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so a high count does not show a problem at a particular base.
The Month Before the 2019 Rules
The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. It set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. Every case here was tried before those changes.
The records do not show the evidence or the plea terms. They do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, or cases with no action.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial with a trial date in December 2018 (30 cases), compared with the whole 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
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What the Air Force Tried in November 2018 (previous / next)
- Air Force Courts-Martial, January 2019: The Month in Review (previous / next)
- Air Force Courts-Martial in 2018: Year in Review (the whole year)
- Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2018: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2019: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2018: The Month in Review
- Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2020: The Month in Review
- 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.