Bremerton, Washington vs. Camp Pendleton, California: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2013–2018

Trends › By Installation › Bremerton, Washington › vs. Camp Pendleton, California

Based on 221 cases · 2013–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Shorter Confinement Than at Camp Pendleton

Of the 210 convictions at Bremerton, 198 included confinement. The median confinement was 5 months. At Camp Pendleton in the same years, the median was 8 months.

The difference shows up in the longer bands. 41 of the 210 convictions at Bremerton carried more than one year of confinement (20%), compared with 32% at Camp Pendleton. Sentences under 6 months made up 53% of Bremerton convictions and 36% of Camp Pendleton convictions.

These are adjudged sentences: what the court announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence also covers every charge in the case, not a single offense. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement, because a special court-martial is capped at one year.

Punitive Discharges at a Lower Rate

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member, and a dismissal for an officer. At Bremerton, 52% of convicted enlisted members received one: 88 bad-conduct discharges and 18 dishonorable discharges. At Camp Pendleton, the share was 71%.

5 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Bremerton records, and 3 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation, which these records do not track.

How Often the Accused Pleaded Guilty

183 accused at Bremerton pleaded guilty, and 27 contested at least one charge. A case counts as contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge, either a not-guilty plea or a mixed plea. That makes 13% of cases with a recorded plea contested (210 of 221 records list the plea).

Camp Pendleton records from these years almost never list the plea, so no plea comparison is possible. Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum.

Guilty pleas varied by charge. Cases charging Article 112a (drug offenses) ended in a guilty plea 97% of the time (68 of 70), the most among the top charges. Cases charging Article 128 (assault) did so 79% of the time (50 of 63). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested.

Drug and Assault Charges Led the List

Charge lists exist for 210 of the 221 cases. One case can fall under several articles, so a case can appear in more than one row.

Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) was the most common charge, in 34% of cases, compared with 29% at Camp Pendleton. Article 128 (assault) followed at 30%, against 29%.

Two charges appeared more often at Bremerton: Article 107 (false official statements), in 15% of cases against 8%, and Article 81 (conspiracy), in 12% against 5%. Two appeared less often: Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation), in 10% against 20%, and Article 86 (AWOL), in 11% against 20%.

Convictions on the Top Charges

Every case that charged Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article (71 of 71), with a median confinement of 4 months. The same was true of Article 121 (larceny): 29 of 29 convictions, with a median of 6 months.

Article 128 had the lowest conviction share of the top charges, 58 of 64 (91%), with a median of 6 months. Article 107 produced 30 convictions out of 31 cases (97%), with a median of 5 months. A conviction on one article and an acquittal on another can happen in the same case, so these rows overlap.

Results in Contested Cases

27 contested cases reached a verdict at Bremerton. 11 of them ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge, a rate of 41%.

Another 1 case was a partial acquittal: not guilty of at least one charge or specification, but guilty of another. Camp Pendleton has too few contested cases with a recorded plea for a comparison.

Court Level and Rank

Bremerton held 71 general courts-martial and 150 special courts-martial. The general share, 32%, compares with 35% at Camp Pendleton. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge.

The two court levels produced different results. General courts-martial had a median confinement of 1.8 years and 25% of them were contested. Special courts-martial had a median of 4 months and 8% were contested.

Among the accused with rank recorded, 138 were junior enlisted, 75 were NCOs, and 5 were officers. The sheet describes this group as more senior than the accused at Camp Pendleton in the same years.

Cases by Year

The Bremerton records run from February 2013 to December 2018. By year: 2013: 14, 2014: 47, 2015: 45, 2016: 37, 2017: 50, 2018: 28. The 2013 count starts in February.

Before the 2019 Rules, and What the Records Omit

Every trial here came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law later set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those rules applied to these cases.

The records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences. They do not show the evidence, the terms of any plea deal, or the offense dates. Conduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation does not appear at all.

Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.

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.