How Camp Lejeune, North Carolina Handled Orders Violation Cases (Article 92), 2017–2018

Trends › By Installation › Camp Lejeune, North Carolina › Article 92, 2017–2018

Based on 22 cases · 2017–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Article 92 Was Almost Never the Only Charge

Only 1 of the 22 cases charged Article 92 by itself. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 25 of 144 Article 92 cases did. At Camp Lejeune, the orders violation was almost always one charge among several.

Article 112a (drug) was the most common other charge, in 9 cases. Article 121 (larceny) and Article 81 (conspiracy) appeared in 6 each, and Article 128 (assault) in 5. A court-martial sentence covers every charge in the case. The discharge and confinement figures therefore include punishment for these other offenses, not only the orders violation.

Punitive Discharges Were More Common

Among 21 enlisted members convicted, 17 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge (81%). In all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases for 2017–2018, the share was 63%. Of the 17 discharges, 4 were dishonorable.

A sentence without a punitive discharge does not mean the member stayed in the service. An administrative separation can follow, and these records do not show it.

How Much Confinement?

Confinement was part of 95% of the 21 convictions. Only 1 conviction carried no confinement (5%), compared with 20% elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with 8 months service-wide.

Terms under 6 months made up 48% of convictions, compared with 34% service-wide. Sentences of more than one year came in 6 of 21 convictions (29%), compared with 25%. A quarter of the terms were 1.5 years or more. No sentence was 5 years or longer, compared with 9% elsewhere. These are adjudged sentences, as imposed at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

How the Figures Compare

The comparisons do not all point the same way. The median confinement was shorter than elsewhere, and terms under 6 months were more common. The share of convictions with no confinement was lower. The share of sentences above one year was higher, and punitive discharges were more common.

In plain terms, a conviction here almost always included some confinement and usually a punitive discharge, even when the confinement was short. The records cannot show why. The group is small, and a few cases can change each of these shares.

General and Special Courts-Martial

7 of the 22 cases were general courts-martial (32%), compared with 35% in Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases overall. The rest were special courts-martial.

A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement, so the 6 sentences longer than one year came from general courts-martial.

Rank of the Accused

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 76% of the accused, and NCOs (E-5 to E-9) were 24%. No officers appear. In the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps, junior enlisted members were 64% of the Article 92 accused, so this group was more junior. Because no officers were charged, the discharge figures describe enlisted members only.

Cases in 2017 and 2018

The records run from January 2017 to December 2018, with 10 cases in 2017 and 12 in 2018. Of the 22 cases, 21 ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Those 21 convictions are the basis for the sentence figures on this page. Article 92 was charged in 16% of the 140 courts-martial at Camp Lejeune in those years.

The records list trial dates, not the dates of the alleged violations. Some cases may concern earlier conduct.

Before the 2019 Changes

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019, so every trial counted here took place under the earlier system. That law later set fixed panel sizes. It created a judge-alone special court-martial capped at six months of confinement with no punitive discharge. It also brought in written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to the cases on this page.

What the Records Do Not Show

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea. This group has no plea or verdict breakdown, so it cannot show how many cases were contested or how they ended. The records do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Orders violations handled through nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not counted.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.