FE Warren AFB, Wyoming Before and After 2019: How Its Courts-Martial Changed

Trends › By Installation › FE Warren AFB, Wyoming › Before and after 2019

Based on 21 cases · 2019–2023 · Air Force records · data updated October 24, 2026

Then and Now

This page compares 2016–2018 with 2019–2023 at one base. The detailed figures below describe the later cases. The comparison table shows them next to the earlier ones.

The earlier period had 23 cases, about 8 a year. Since 2019 the base has averaged about 4 a year, counting full years only. The median adjudged confinement went from 5 months to 4 months. The share of convictions that included any confinement went from 72% to 93%.

The largest change was in punitive discharges. Among convicted enlisted members, the punitive discharge share went from 44% to 64%. General courts-martial fell from 74% of cases to 57%. In groups this small a few cases can change a percentage by a large amount, so these changes show direction, not precise measurements.

Fewer Cases Each Year

The records show 21 cases between January 2019 and January 2023. The base tried 5 cases in 2019, 4 in 2020, 6 in 2021, 3 in 2022, and 3 in 2023, a partial year in the data.

Which Articles Were Charged?

Charge shares here are based on the 15 cases whose records list charges, and a single case can be counted under several articles. Air Force records rarely list charges when a case ended in a full acquittal.

Article 134, the general article, was the most common charge at 33%, compared with 21% in the rest of the Air Force. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) was also more common: 27% compared with 16%. Article 113 (drunken or reckless driving since 2019, misbehavior of a sentinel before that) was charged in 13% of cases, compared with 4%.

Drug charges were less common. Article 112a (wrongful use or possession of controlled substances) was charged in 20% of these cases, compared with 41% in the rest of the Air Force. Article 128 (assault) was also less common: 13% compared with 19%.

Punitive Discharges After a Conviction

For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. Of 14 convicted enlisted members here, 9 received one (64%). That was more often than in all Air Force cases in those years (56%). 6 of those 9 were dishonorable discharges, the more severe form, which only a general court-martial can impose.

The records include 1 convicted officer or warrant officer, and 1 was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge can still be followed by an administrative separation, which is not in these records.

How Much Confinement?

15 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 14 of those sentences included confinement (93%). The median confinement was 4 months, the same as the 4-month median in the rest of the Air Force. A quarter of the sentences were 2 years or longer.

These are adjudged sentences, announced at trial before clemency or appeal, and each one covers every charge in its case.

Acquittals and Contested Pleas

6 of the 21 cases ended in a full acquittal (29%), compared with 24% in the rest of the Air Force. This page measures acquittals against all cases, not only contested cases, because Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list the plea when the accused pleaded guilty.

A plea is recorded in 16 of the 21 records. 7 were not-guilty or mixed pleas, and 9 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 44%. A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Across the Air Force, the contested share was 50%.

Compared With Bases of Similar Size

JB Andrews, Maryland and JB Lewis-McChord, Washington each tried 21 Air Force cases in the same years. All 3 bases had a median confinement of 4 months. FE Warren's punitive discharge rate of 64% was higher than JB Andrews (50%) and lower than JB Lewis-McChord (69%).

FE Warren had the lowest contested share of the 3, 44%, compared with 50% at JB Andrews and 80% at JB Lewis-McChord.

Forum, Rank, and Court Level

A military judge alone heard 13 cases, an enlisted panel heard 7, and an officer panel heard 1. Members heard 38% of the cases, the same as the 38% across the Air Force. The accused usually chooses the forum, and most judge-alone trials are guilty pleas.

The accused were 13 junior enlisted members, 7 NCOs, and 1 officer, a mix similar to all Air Force cases. 12 of the 21 cases were general courts-martial (57%, compared with 53% across the Air Force). A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

What the Records Do Not Show

Only cases that went to a court-martial appear here. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and matters dropped without action are not in the data. The records do not describe the evidence. Air Force records also never report plea agreements, so the terms of any agreement are unknown.

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.