> ## 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 the Air Force Tried in July 2019 - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-july-2019/ - Published: 2026-10-28T06:53:23.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T08:08:00.000Z - Description: Air Force records hold 26 courts-martial from July 2019. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 26% of cases with charge lists, compared with 15% for the Air Force across 2019. Article 119, manslaughter, appeared in 2 cases. For the year, it appeared in 1% of cases. - Author: Jocelyn C. Stewart - Tags: Understanding Trends, Air Force [Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/) › [By Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-year/) › July 2019 **Short answer:** Air Force records hold 26 courts-martial from July 2019\. Assault under Article 128 appeared in 26% of cases with charge lists, compared with 15% for the Air Force across 2019\. Article 119, manslaughter, appeared in 2 cases. For the year, it appeared in 1% of cases. Based on 26 cases · July 2019 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Violent Offenses Were Charged More Often Charges are listed for 19 of the 26 cases, and each article is counted once per case. Article 128, assault, appeared in 5 of them. That is 26% of cases, compared with 15% across the Air Force in 2019. Article 119, manslaughter, appeared in 2 cases (11%), compared with 1% for the year. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in 11%, compared with 8%. Each of these shares is based on very few cases, so 1 trial more or less changes them by a large amount. ## Other Charges Article 112a, wrongful use or possession of controlled substances, was the most common charge, in 53% of cases. That is about the same as the 51% for the year. Article 134, the general article, appeared in 26%, compared with 23%. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) appeared in 16%, compared with 14%. Article 120b (rape and sexual assault of a child) appeared in 1 case. Article 120a also appeared in 1 case. Article 120a covered stalking before 2019 and has covered mails and obscene matter since. Air Force records rarely list charges in full acquittals, so these shares mostly describe cases with a conviction. | UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2019 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------- | ------------------------------------ | | [Art. 112a](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-112a-drug-offenses/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 10 | 53% | 51% | | [Art. 128](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Assault | 5 | 26% | 15% | | [Art. 134](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-134/?ref=bodiesburied.com) General article | 5 | 26% | 23% | | [Art. 92](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-92/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Failure to obey order or regulation | 3 | 16% | 14% | | Art. 119 Manslaughter | 2 | 11% | 1% | | [Art. 120](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-120-sexual-assault/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault | 2 | 11% | 8% | | Art. 120a Stalking before 2019, mails; obscene matter since | 1 | 5% | 0% | | [Art. 120b](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-120b/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault of a child | 1 | 5% | 7% | ## More Full Acquittals Than the Year Of the 26 cases, 7 ended in a full acquittal, a finding of not guilty on every charge. That 27% rate is higher than the 21% for the Air Force in 2019. This rate uses all cases as the base. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea, so the contested share for July cannot be computed. An acquittal rate for contested cases alone is therefore not available. ## Equal Numbers of Judge-Alone and Panel Cases A military judge alone decided 13 cases. Members decided the other 50%: 5 with enlisted panels and 8 with officer panels. Across the Air Force in 2019, members heard 42% of cases. The accused usually chooses the forum. Most guilty pleas go to a military judge alone, so a higher panel share often comes with more contested cases. Plea data for this period is too sparse to confirm that here. ## Confinement by Court Level Confinement was part of 79% of the 19 convictions. The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the Air Force median for 2019\. A quarter of the terms were 1.1 years or longer. At the 12 general courts-martial, 6 of 8 convictions included confinement, with a median of 1.5 years. At the 14 special courts-martial, 82% did, with a median of 2 months. General courts-martial made up 46% of the month. A special court-martial is capped at one year of confinement and cannot adjudge a dishonorable discharge. These are adjudged sentences. They cover every charge of conviction and come before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. ## Punitive Discharges Of 19 convicted enlisted members, 11 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (58%). That is about the same as the 57% across the Air Force. Of the 11, 4 were dishonorable. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. Administrative separations are not in these court records. ## Compared With July 2018 July 2018 had 21 cases, and July 2019 had 26\. The punitive discharge share for convicted enlisted members went from 31% to 58%. The median confinement went from 3 months to 4 months. The general court-martial share went from 38% to 46%. Convictions with confinement went from 87% to 79%. Monthly groups this small can change with a few cases, so the comparison shows direction only. The records cannot show what caused any change. | | July 2018 | July 2019 | | ----------------------------- | --------- | --------- | | Cases | 21 | 26 | | Contested (of pleas recorded) | — | — | | Convictions with confinement | 87% | 79% | | Median confinement | 3 months | 4 months | | Punitive discharge (enlisted) | 31% | 58% | | General courts-martial | 38% | 46% | ## Rank, Location, and Limits of the Records The accused were 19 junior enlisted members, 6 NCOs, and 1 officer. That group was more junior than the Air Force overall in 2019\. Dyess AFB, Texas, and Edwards AFB, California, tried 2 cases each. JB Lewis-McChord, Washington, Offutt AFB, Nebraska, and JB Andrews, Maryland, tried 1 each. Together these installations account for 27% of the month's cases. Since 2019, a special court-martial may be tried by a military judge alone, capped at six months with no punitive discharge. The records show only trial dates, so they cannot show which rules applied to each offense. They also do not include nonjudicial punishment, the evidence, or plea terms. Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: [UCMJ change timeline](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/ucmj-change-timeline/). ### How We Counted Air Force courts-martial with a trial date in July 2019 (26 cases), compared with the whole year. 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 - [Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial/) (hub) - [By Year](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/by-year/) (hub) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, June 2019: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-june-2019/) (previous / next) - [August 2019 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 18 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2019/) (previous / next) - [Air Force Courts-Martial in 2019: Year in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-2019-year-in-review/) (the whole year) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2018: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-april-2018/) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, April 2019: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-april-2019/) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2018: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2018/) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2020: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2020/) - [Search every case in Military Trial Results](https://www.bodiesburied.com/military-trial-results/) (members) ← Previous: [Air Force Courts-Martial, June 2019: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-june-2019/)Next: [August 2019 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 18 Cases](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2019/) → **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.