What Was Tried at Fort Wainwright, 2020–2023? 45 Courts-Martial

Trends › By Installation › Fort Wainwright › 2020–2023

Based on 45 cases · 2020–2023 · Army records · data updated October 24, 2026

Drunken or Reckless Driving Charged More Often

Article 113 covers misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019 and drunken or reckless driving since. It was charged in 11 cases at Fort Wainwright, 26% of the 43 cases whose records list charges. Across all Army courts-martial in the same years, the share was 3%.

All 11 of those cases ended in a conviction on that article. The median confinement for those convictions was 5 days, the lowest among the top charges at the installation.

Assault (Article 128) was the most common charge, in 28% of cases, compared with 31% Army-wide. Article 120 (sexual assault) was charged less often than in the rest of the Army: 19% compared with 25%.

Fewer Punitive Discharges Than the Army as a Whole

Of 36 convicted enlisted members, 18 received a punitive discharge: 12 bad-conduct discharges and 6 dishonorable discharges. That is 50%, lower than 73% elsewhere in the Army.

A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge that a court-martial can impose on an enlisted member. For officers, the equivalent is a dismissal. There were 2 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 0 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.

How Did Contested Cases End?

A case counts as contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. Of the 43 cases with a recorded plea, 11 were contested and 32 were guilty pleas. The contested share was 26%, lower than 35% across the Army.

Full acquittals were more common here than Army-wide. 50% of the 10 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal, compared with 37% for the Army. Another 2 ended in a partial acquittal: not guilty on at least one charge or specification and guilty on another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common in Army data.

31 of the 32 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 1 has no entry. Army records show only whether an agreement existed, not its terms.

Judges, Panels, and Who Decided Guilt

The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. At Fort Wainwright, 18% of cases with a listed forum went to members: 7 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel. The other 36 were judge alone.

Among contested cases, members heard 7 of 11 (64%). Guilty pleas are usually heard by a judge alone, so the overall split mostly follows the low contested share.

Confinement Terms Close to the Army Median

Of 45 cases, 38 ended in a conviction on at least one charge, and 34 of those sentences included confinement (89%). The median was 6 months, the same as the median for all Army cases in those years. A quarter of those sentences were 1.2 years or longer.

10 of 38 convictions (26%) included more than one year, about the same as 27% Army-wide. These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case.

Sentences differed by court level. At general courts-martial, 100% of convictions included confinement, with a median of 1.2 years. At special courts-martial, 85% did, with a median of 30 days.

Results Charge by Charge

Conviction rates differed across the most common articles. 11 of 12 assault (Article 128) cases ended in a conviction on that article (92%), with a median confinement of 8 months. 9 of 11 Article 134 (general article) cases did (82%), with a median of 1 year.

Article 120 had the lowest conviction rate. Only 4 of 8 cases ended in a conviction on that article. The median confinement for those convictions was 3.1 years. A conviction on one article and an acquittal on another can happen in the same case, so these rows overlap.

The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the case.

Rank and Court Level

Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 62% of the accused, NCOs 33%, and officers 4%. Across all Army cases, junior enlisted members were 57%.

General courts-martial made up 61% of the 38 cases with a court level listed (23 of 38), with special courts-martial handling the rest. The court level is not listed for 7 cases. 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 can impose a bad-conduct discharge but not a dishonorable one.

Compared With Vilseck and Fort Benning

Vilseck in Europe and Fort Benning tried a similar number of Army cases in the same years. Vilseck had a higher contested share, 49%, and 10 of 21 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal. Fort Benning had a lower contested share, 18%, and 0 of 9 contested cases ended in a full acquittal.

Both had higher punitive discharge shares for enlisted members than Fort Wainwright's 50%: 73% at Vilseck and 77% at Fort Benning. Median confinement was 5 months at Fort Benning and 8 months at Vilseck.

Timing, Coverage, and Gaps

The cases run from November 2020 to December 2023: 2 in 2020, 14 in 2021, 10 in 2022, and 19 in 2023. Together they are 3% of the 1,581 Army courts-martial in those years. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. This data has few Army records before 2021, so the 2020 count is small.

The records list trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms. They do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations.

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.