Fort Wainwright in 2021: 14 Courts-Martial, Year in Review
The records hold 14 courts-martial at Fort Wainwright from March 2021 to December 2021. Of 10 convicted enlisted members, 6 received a punitive discharge (60%), compared with 70% across the Army. The contested share was 43%, compared with 36% across the Army.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Installation › Fort Wainwright › 2021
Short answer: The records hold 14 courts-martial at Fort Wainwright from March 2021 to December 2021. Of 10 convicted enlisted members, 6 received a punitive discharge (60%), compared with 70% across the Army. The contested share was 43%, compared with 36% across the Army.
Fewer Punitive Discharges Than Across the Army
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for enlisted members. At Fort Wainwright, 6 of 10 convicted enlisted members received one: 5 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. Across the Army, the share was 70%.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Contested Cases and Members Panels
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. In 2021, 6 accused contested and 8 pleaded guilty, a contested share of 43%. Across the Army, the contested share was 36%. Of the 6 contested cases that reached a verdict, 4 ended in a full acquittal, with the accused found not guilty of every charge.
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 36% of cases, all with enlisted panels: 5 cases. A military judge alone decided the other 9.
Confinement
Of 10 cases that ended in a conviction on at least one charge, 9 sentences included confinement (90%). The median confinement was 7 months, close to the 6 months across the Army. Among sentences that included confinement, a quarter were 1 year or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.
What Was Charged
All 14 records list the charges, and one case can be counted under several articles. Article 128 (assault) was the most common charge, in 5 cases (36%), compared with 38% across the Army. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) appeared in 21%, compared with 29%.
Article 107 (false official statements) appeared in 21%, compared with 12% across the Army. Article 120c (other sexual misconduct) appeared in 14%, compared with 3%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Army as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 5 | 36% | 38% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 3 | 21% | 29% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 3 | 21% | 16% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 3 | 21% | 12% |
| Art. 134 General article | 3 | 21% | 21% |
| Art. 120c Other sexual misconduct | 2 | 14% | 3% |
| Art. 114 Endangerment offenses | 1 | 7% | 1% |
| Art. 119b Child endangerment | 1 | 7% | 2% |
Rank and Court Level
Of the accused, 8 were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4) and 6 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), with no officers or warrant officers. That mix is similar to the Army, where 58% were junior enlisted.
General courts-martial made up 8 cases (57%), compared with 73% across the Army. The other 6 were special courts-martial, which cap confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Camp Humphreys and Fort Bliss
Camp Humphreys (23 cases) and Fort Bliss (30 cases) tried a similar number of Army cases in 2021. The median confinement was 7 months at Fort Bliss and 3 months at Camp Humphreys. Full acquittals in contested cases that reached a verdict were 7 of 12 at Camp Humphreys and 3 of 10 at Fort Bliss.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Wainwright | 14 | 43% | 4 of 6 | 7 months | 60% |
| Camp Humphreys | 23 | 52% | 7 of 12 | 3 months | 5 of 9 |
| Fort Bliss | 30 | 33% | 3 of 10 | 7 months | 73% |
Record Coverage and Limits
The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, so there is no earlier year to compare.
The records cover only cases that reached a courtroom. Nonjudicial punishment, administrative separations, and cases with no action are not included, and the records do not describe the evidence or plea terms.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Wainwright with a trial date in 2021 (14 cases).
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
- Fort Wainwright: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Wainwright: 2023 (previous / next)
- What Was Tried at Fort Wainwright, 2020–2023? 45 Courts-Martial (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Camp Humphreys: 2024
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Camp Humphreys: 2025
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2022
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2023
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Fort Benning: 2025
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Wainwright, 2021
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.