Are Convicted Military Officers Dismissed?
Not always. Of 276 convicted officers and warrant officers in Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps records from 2021–2025, 134 were dismissed (49%). At general courts-martial, 58% of 230 convicted officers were dismissed.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › Are Convicted Military Officers Dismissed?
Short answer: Not always. Of 276 convicted officers and warrant officers in Army, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps records from 2021–2025, 134 were dismissed (49%). At general courts-martial, 58% of 230 convicted officers were dismissed. The share was 60% in the Air Force, 48% in the Army, and 35% in the Navy and Marine Corps.
134 of 276 Convicted Officers Were Dismissed
A dismissal is the punitive separation a court-martial can adjudge for an officer. It is the officer equivalent of a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member. Of the 276 officers and warrant officers convicted at court-martial from 2021–2025, 134 were dismissed. That is 49%.
A sentence without a dismissal does not rule out a later administrative separation. The records do not show administrative separations, so they cannot show how many of the other officers left the service that way.
Dismissal Shares by Service
The Army had the most convicted officers, with 165. 80 of them were dismissed (48%). The Air Force had 60 convicted officers, and 36 were dismissed (60%), the highest share of the services.
The Navy and Marine Corps had 51 convicted officers, and 18 were dismissed (35%). The table also shows how often each service's officer sentences included confinement: 77% in the Air Force, 61% in the Navy and Marine Corps, and 57% in the Army.
| Service | Convicted officers | Dismissed | Dismissal share | Included confinement |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Army | 165 | 80 | 48% | 57% |
| Air Force | 60 | 36 | 60% | 77% |
| Navy-Marine Corps | 51 | 18 | 35% | 61% |
General and Special Courts-Martial
230 of the 273 cases with a court level listed were general courts-martial (84%), and 43 were special courts-martial. The court level is not listed for 3 cases. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dismissal.
At general courts-martial, 58% of the 230 convicted officers were dismissed. At special courts-martial, the share was 2% of 43, or 1 case. A special court-martial cannot adjudge a dismissal, so that 1 entry conflicts with the rule and may be a recording error in the public records.
Dismissal Shares by Year
The yearly dismissal share was highest in 2021, at 56% of 52 convicted officers. It was 49% of 51 in 2022 and 39% of 46 in 2023, the lowest year. The share was 51% of 61 in 2024 and 47% of 66 in 2025.
The records cannot show why the share differed from year to year.
| Year | Convicted officers | Dismissal share |
|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 52 | 56% |
| 2022 | 51 | 49% |
| 2023 | 46 | 39% |
| 2024 | 61 | 51% |
| 2025 | 66 | 47% |
Confinement for Convicted Officers
Confinement was part of 62% of the 276 officer convictions. The median confinement was 5 months, compared with 6 months for convicted enlisted members. A quarter of the officer sentences with confinement were 1.5 years or longer, and 1 was a life sentence.
105 officer convictions had no confinement (38%), compared with 16% for convicted enlisted members. 52 of 276 officer convictions were sentenced to more than one year (19%), compared with 26% for enlisted members. 18 were 5 years or more.
At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 6 months. At special courts-martial, it was 52 days. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, convicted enlisted members |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 105 | 38% | 16% |
| Under 6 months | 90 | 33% | 40% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 29 | 11% | 18% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 34 | 12% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 18 | 7% | 7% |
Conduct Unbecoming Was the Most Common Charge
All 276 records list the charges. Article 133 (conduct unbecoming an officer) appeared in 78 cases (28%). Article 134, the general article, appeared in 67 cases, Article 128 (assault) in 62, and Article 128b (domestic violence) and Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) in 38 each.
Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) appeared in 11% of officer cases, compared with 16% of cases with convicted enlisted members.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, convicted enlisted members |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 133 Conduct unbecoming an officer | 78 | 28% | 0% |
| Art. 134 General article | 67 | 24% | 23% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 62 | 22% | 23% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 38 | 14% | 13% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 38 | 14% | 12% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 35 | 13% | 17% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 29 | 11% | 16% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 23 | 8% | 7% |
Conviction on Each Top Charge
Article 128 ended in a conviction on that article in 59 of 62 cases charging it. Article 133 did so in 70 of 78, Article 128b in 35 of 38, and Article 134 in 59 of 67, the lowest share among the top charges.
The median confinement when convicted of Article 128b was 10 months. For Article 134 it was 6 months, and for Article 133 and Article 128 it was 5 months. A sentence covers every charge in the case.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 133 Conduct unbecoming an officer | 78 | 70 (90%) | 5 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 67 | 59 (88%) | 6 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 62 | 59 (95%) | 5 months |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 38 | 35 (92%) | 10 months |
Pleas and Partial Acquittals
The plea is listed in 270 of the 276 records. 179 officers pleaded guilty, and 91 contested at least one charge with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 34%, higher than the 25% for convicted enlisted members. It was 37% at general courts-martial and 21% at special courts-martial.
54 of the 91 contested cases ended in a partial acquittal (59%), meaning not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another. Cases charging Article 128 ended in a guilty plea 66% of the time (40 of 61), and cases charging Article 128b 50% of the time (19 of 38).
Installations, Years, and Limits
Fort Hood had 21 of these cases, Fort Bragg had 18, Norfolk, Virginia, had 11, and Fort Knox and Camp Humphreys had 10 each. These 5 installations account for 25% of the 276 cases. The yearly count was 52 in 2021, 51 in 2022, 46 in 2023, 61 in 2024, and 66 in 2025.
Since December 28, 2023, special trial counsel decide whether to prosecute covered offenses, and for offenses after December 27, 2023, the military judge sets the sentence. Both depend on the offense date, which the records do not give. The records also do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they leave out nonjudicial punishment and administrative separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Convictions of officers and warrant officers in all services, trial dates 2021–2025 (276), compared with convicted enlisted members (4361).
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
- Sentences (hub)
- Can a Special Court-Martial Give a Dishonorable Discharge?
- Court-Martial Sentences: Junior Enlisted Members Compared With NCOs
- Does Every Court-Martial Conviction Bring a Punitive Discharge?
- Does Pleading Guilty at a Court-Martial Mean Confinement?
- How Often Do Army Courts-Martial End in a Partial Acquittal?
- How Often Do Contested Courts-Martial End in a Full Acquittal?
- Judge Alone or Members: How Contested Army and Air Force Cases Ended
- 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.