29 Orders Violation Courts-Martial at Camp Pendleton, California, 2017–2018: What the Records Show

Trends › By Installation › Camp Pendleton, California › Article 92, 2017–2018

Based on 29 cases · 2017–2018 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Article 92 Was Rarely the Only Charge

Article 92 covers failing to obey a lawful general order or regulation, failing to obey other lawful orders, and dereliction of duty. In the Camp Pendleton cases from these years, it was rarely charged alone.

Article 92 was the only charge in 3 of the 29 cases. Article 112a (drug) was the most common other charge, in 14 cases. Article 128 (assault) appeared in 9, Article 107 (false official statement) in 4, and Article 120 (sexual assault) and Article 134 (general article) in 3 each.

This affects every sentence figure on this page. A court-martial sentence covers all the charges in the case. A term of confinement here may include punishment for drug use, an assault, or a sexual assault as well as the orders violation. The records do not split a sentence by charge.

Longer Confinement

Confinement was part of 81% of the 27 convictions. The median confinement was 10 months, compared with 8 months for orders cases across the Navy and Marine Corps. A quarter of the confinement sentences were 1.7 years or longer.

Each figure is an adjudged sentence: the term announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal.

The median of 10 months was within the one-year cap of a special court-martial. The longest quarter of sentences was above that cap, and only general courts-martial can impose sentences that long.

More Sentences Longer Than One Year

Sentences longer than one year came in 9 of 27 convictions (33%), compared with 25% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Terms of 5 years or more made up 15% of convictions here, compared with 9% elsewhere. Terms of more than 1 year and under 5 years made up 19%, compared with 16%.

Sentences under 6 months were less common, at 22% compared with 34%. The share with no confinement, 19%, was about the same as the 20% elsewhere.

General and Special Courts-Martial

Of the 29 cases, 11 were general courts-martial (38%, compared with 35% in Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases overall), and 18 were special courts-martial. The median confinement was 2.3 years at general courts-martial and 7 months at special courts-martial.

This difference follows the limits at each level. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial is capped at one year and can impose a bad-conduct discharge but nothing more severe.

Most Convicted Members Received a Punitive Discharge

78% of enlisted convictions here included a punitive discharge: 16 bad-conduct discharges and 5 dishonorable discharges. Across the Navy and Marine Corps as a whole, the share for Article 92 cases was 63%.

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or a dishonorable discharge. A member whose sentence included neither could still be separated administratively. These records do not include administrative separations.

Rank of the Accused

The accused were 22 junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 5 NCOs (E-5 to E-9). No officers or warrant officers were charged. In Article 92 cases elsewhere in the Navy and Marine Corps, 64% were junior enlisted, so this group was more junior.

Cases by Year

The data holds 29 cases tried from February 2017 to December 2018: 19 in 2017 and 10 in 2018. Article 92 was charged in 19% of the 149 courts-martial at Camp Pendleton, California in that period.

The records cannot show why there were fewer cases in 2018. They do not show whether there were fewer offenses, different charging decisions, or more cases handled outside a court-martial.

Rules Before 2019

These trials took place under the rules in force before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law set fixed panel sizes. It created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge. It also brought in written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to the cases here.

What the Records Do Not Show

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea. This page therefore does not report how many of these cases were contested or how many ended in a partial acquittal. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms. They exclude orders violations handled through nonjudicial punishment, administrative separation, or no action.

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.