> ## 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. # July 2025 at Air Force Courts-Martial: 21 Cases - URL: https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-july-2025/ - Published: 2026-10-28T06:53:53.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-30T05:20:18.000Z - Description: The Air Force tried 21 courts-martial in July 2025. The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months for the Air Force across 2025. Of 16 convicted enlisted members, 13 (81%) received a punitive discharge, compared with 60% for the year. - 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 2025 **Short answer:** The Air Force tried 21 courts-martial in July 2025\. The median confinement was 4 months, compared with 6 months for the Air Force across 2025\. Of 16 convicted enlisted members, 13 (81%) received a punitive discharge, compared with 60% for the year. Based on 21 cases · July 2025 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026 ## Shorter Confinement, More Punitive Discharges Of 17 convictions, 16 included confinement (94%). The median confinement was 4 months, lower than the 6-month median across the Air Force for 2025\. A quarter of the terms were 1 year or longer. Of 16 convicted enlisted members, 13 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. That 81% share compares with 60% for the year. Of the 13, 3 were dishonorable and 10 were bad-conduct discharges. ## What These Sentence Figures Cover These are adjudged sentences: the sentence imposed at trial for every charge of conviction. Plea-agreement terms, clemency, and appeals can change them later, and these records do not follow those steps. For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. The officer equivalent is dismissal. The month's 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. ## Larceny and False Statements Charges are listed for 20 of the 21 cases, and one case can appear under several articles. Article 134, the general article, was the most common charge, in 30% of cases. Across the Air Force in 2025, the share was 23%. Article 121, larceny, appeared in 20% of cases, compared with 5% for the year. Article 107, false official statements, also appeared in 20%, compared with 8%. Article 90, willfully disobeying a superior officer, appeared in 10%, compared with 4%. Drug charges under Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) appeared in 20%, about the same as the 21% for the year. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) appeared in 15%. Article 128b (domestic violence) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 10%, lower than their yearly shares of 16% and 12%. | UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force for all of 2025 | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----- | ---------- | ------------------------------------ | | [Art. 134](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-134/?ref=bodiesburied.com) General article | 6 | 30% | 23% | | [Art. 121](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-121/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Larceny | 4 | 20% | 5% | | [Art. 112a](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-112a-drug-offenses/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 20% | 21% | | [Art. 107](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-107/?ref=bodiesburied.com) False official statements | 4 | 20% | 8% | | [Art. 120](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-120-sexual-assault/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Rape and sexual assault | 3 | 15% | 14% | | [Art. 128b](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/ucmj/article-128b-domestic-violence/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Domestic violence | 2 | 10% | 16% | | [Art. 90](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-90/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Willfully disobeying superior officer | 2 | 10% | 4% | | [Art. 128](https://www.ucmj-defender.com/practice-areas/court-martial/article-128/?ref=bodiesburied.com) Assault | 2 | 10% | 12% | ## Pleas and Forum A plea appears in 16 of the 21 records. Of those, 11 were guilty pleas and 5 were contested, meaning a not-guilty plea to at least one charge. The contested share was 31%, compared with 41% for the Air Force in 2025. A military judge alone decided guilt in 19 of 21 cases (90%). Members heard 2, both with enlisted panels. The accused usually chooses the forum. Most judge-alone cases are guilty pleas, so the split mostly follows how many cases were contested. ## Court Level and Rank Of the 21 cases, 9 were general courts-martial (43%, compared with 51% across the Air Force in 2025). The rest were special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. Since 2019, a special court-martial tried by a military judge alone is limited to six months with no punitive discharge. The accused were 13 junior enlisted members, 7 NCOs, and 1 officer. That mix was similar to the Air Force overall that year. Junior enlisted members are in grades E-1 to E-4, and NCOs are in grades E-5 to E-9. ## Rules That Changed Before These Trials Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel, not commanders, decide whether to prosecute covered offenses such as sexual assault, domestic violence, and murder. When every guilty finding in a case is for an offense after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence within new sentencing parameters. Both rules depend on the offense date, which the records do not give. Trials from 2024 on therefore include cases under both the old and new rules. The records cannot show whether the changes had any effect on this month's results. ## Overseas Bases Tried the Most Cases Aviano AB, Italy, and Osan AB, South Korea, each tried 2 cases. Hurlburt Field, Florida, Shaw AFB, South Carolina, and Kadena AB, Japan, tried 1 each. Together these installations account for 33% of the month's cases. Larger bases try more cases of every type, so the counts show little about any single installation. ## What the Records Do Not Show The records cover only cases that reached a court-martial. They do not include nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, or charges never referred to trial. They do not describe the evidence. Air Force records do not report plea agreements, so the terms of the 11 guilty pleas are unknown. The records also give trial dates, not offense dates. That matters for this period, because the 2023 changes described above apply according to when an offense took place. 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 2025 (21 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 2025: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-june-2025/) (previous / next) - [Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2025: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2025/) (previous / next) - [How 2025 Went at Air Force Courts-Martial](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-2025-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 2025: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-june-2025/)Next: [Air Force Courts-Martial, August 2025: The Month in Review](https://www.bodiesburied.com/trends/air-force-courts-martial-august-2025/) → **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.