Inside 12 Courts-Martial at Dover AFB, Delaware, 2019–2023
The records hold 12 courts-martial at Dover AFB, Delaware from 2019 to 2023. A punitive discharge was part of the sentence for 91% of convicted enlisted members, compared with 56% across the Air Force.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Installation › Dover AFB, Delaware › 2019–2023
Short answer: The records hold 12 courts-martial at Dover AFB, Delaware from 2019 to 2023. A punitive discharge was part of the sentence for 91% of convicted enlisted members, compared with 56% across the Air Force. Only 20% of the cases with a plea recorded were contested, compared with 50% for the service.
Bad-Conduct Discharges After Enlisted Convictions
At Dover, 91% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge. All 10 of those discharges were bad-conduct discharges, and none was dishonorable. Across all Air Force cases in those years, the rate was 56%.
A punitive discharge is imposed by the court as part of the sentence. A sentence without one can still be followed by an administrative separation, which these records do not cover.
Most Cases Were Special Courts-Martial
Dover had 3 general courts-martial and 9 special courts-martial. The general share was 25%, compared with 53% across the Air Force.
A special court-martial can impose up to one year of confinement and a bad-conduct discharge, but not a dishonorable discharge. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence.
Guilty Pleas, Contested Cases, and Acquittals
10 of the 12 records list a plea. Of those, 8 were guilty pleas and 2 were contested, meaning the accused pleaded not guilty to at least one charge. The contested share of 20% is lower than the 50% across the Air Force.
1 of the 12 cases ended in a full acquittal (8%), compared with 24% for the Air Force. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 often omit guilty pleas, so this rate uses all cases as the base rather than contested cases only.
A military judge alone decided guilt in 10 cases (83%). Enlisted panels heard the other 2. No officer panel decided a case here.
Confinement Terms
All 11 convictions included confinement. The median term was 4 months, the same as the Air Force median. A quarter of the terms were 9 months or longer.
These figures are the sentences announced at trial. They come before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers all the charges in its case.
Which Articles Were Charged?
Charges are listed for 11 of the 12 cases, and one case can count under several articles. Article 112a (drug use or possession) was the most common, in 4 cases (36%), compared with 41% across the Air Force. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) and Article 128 (assault) each appeared in 2 cases.
Article 121 (larceny), Article 119b (child endangerment), Article 128b (domestic violence), Article 120 (rape and sexual assault), and Article 134 (the general article) each appeared in 1 case.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the rest of the Air Force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 36% | 41% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 2 | 18% | 16% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 2 | 18% | 19% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 1 | 9% | 4% |
| Art. 119b Child endangerment | 1 | 9% | 0% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 1 | 9% | 5% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 1 | 9% | 11% |
| Art. 134 General article | 1 | 9% | 21% |
Dover Next to Similar Installations
RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom and USAF Academy, Colorado each tried 20 cases in the same years. Mildenhall had a median confinement of 8 months. Dover and the Academy each had 4 months.
The punitive discharge rate for enlisted convictions was 91% at Dover, 73% at Mildenhall, and 7% at the Academy. The contested share was 20% at Dover, 50% at Mildenhall, and 75% at the Academy.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dover AFB, Delaware | 12 | 20% | 1 of 2 | 4 months | 91% |
| RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom | 20 | 50% | 1 of 7 | 8 months | 73% |
| USAF Academy, Colorado | 20 | 75% | 3 of 9 | 4 months | 7% |
Who Was Tried, and When
The accused were 8 junior enlisted members, 4 NCOs, and no officers, a mix similar to the Air Force as a whole. The trials ran from May 2019 to December 2023: 2 in 2019, 1 in 2020, 2 in 2021, 3 in 2022, and 4 in 2023. Together they are 1% of the 1,361 Air Force courts-martial in those years.
Limits of the Records
The records list trial dates, not offense dates. They do not show the evidence, any plea terms, or matters handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Air Force records also seldom list the charges in a full acquittal.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Dover AFB, Delaware with a trial date in 2019–2023 (12 cases), compared with all 1,361 Air Force trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
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- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Dover AFB, Delaware, 2019–2023
- Tiny L. Bowman
- Bryon T. Gleisner
- Brian C. Mason
- Mark W. Milam
- Tyler B. Musselman
- Andrew R. Norton
- Michael A. Schrama
- Shaun S. Speranza
- Charles E. Wiedie Jr.
Names and links only. Each judge's record of pleas, findings, and sentences is on their Know Your Judge page, part of the Court-Martial Characters membership.
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.