Fort Wainwright and Vilseck (Europe), 2020–2023: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
Fort Wainwright had 45 courts-martial from 2020–2023, and Vilseck (Europe) had 43.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Fort Wainwright › vs. Vilseck (Europe)
Short answer: Fort Wainwright had 45 courts-martial from 2020–2023, and Vilseck (Europe) had 43. Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019; drunken or reckless driving since) was charged in 26% of Fort Wainwright cases, against 2% at Vilseck, and 26% of Fort Wainwright cases were contested, against 49% at Vilseck.
Article 113 Cases at Fort Wainwright
43 of the 45 Fort Wainwright records list the charges. Each article counts once per case.
Article 113 (misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019; drunken or reckless driving since) appeared in 26% of Fort Wainwright cases and 2% of Vilseck cases. Article 134 (the general article) also appeared in 26%, against 12%.
Two charges were less common at Fort Wainwright. Article 128 (assault), the most common charge there, appeared in 28% of cases against 39% at Vilseck. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) appeared in 19% against 29%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Vilseck (Europe) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 12 | 28% | 39% |
| Art. 113 Misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019, drunken or reckless driving since | 11 | 26% | 2% |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 26% | 12% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 8 | 19% | 29% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 6 | 14% | 7% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 6 | 14% | 20% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 5 | 12% | 5% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 4 | 9% | 2% |
Fewer Contested Cases
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. 43 of the 45 Fort Wainwright records list the plea: 32 guilty pleas and 11 contested cases. That makes 26% contested, against 49% at Vilseck.
31 of the 32 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 1 has no entry. Army records say whether an agreement existed, not what it said.
Verdicts in Contested Cases
10 contested cases at Fort Wainwright reached a verdict. 5 ended in a full acquittal, meaning not guilty of every charge (50%). That is about the same as the 48% at Vilseck, where 10 of 21 contested cases ended that way.
2 more Fort Wainwright cases split the charges. A partial acquittal means not guilty of at least one charge or specification but guilty of another. Army results list findings charge by charge, so partial acquittals are common in Army records.
Conviction Shares and Sentences by Charge
Article 113 ended in a conviction on that article in all 11 cases that charged it. The median confinement for those convictions was 5 days.
Article 128 ended in a conviction in 11 of 12 cases (92%), with a median of 8 months. Article 134 ended in a conviction in 9 of 11 (82%), with a median of 1 year. Article 120 ended in a conviction on that article in 4 of 8 cases, and those 4 convictions carried a median of 3.1 years. A conviction on one article and an acquittal on another can happen in the same case, so these rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 12 | 11 (92%) | 8 months |
| Art. 113 Misbehavior of a sentinel before 2019, drunken or reckless driving since | 11 | 11 (100%) | 5 days |
| Art. 134 General article | 11 | 9 (82%) | 1 year |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 8 | 4 (4 of 8) | 3.1 years |
Confinement and Punitive Discharges
Fort Wainwright had 38 convictions, and 34 carried confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, shorter than the 8 months at Vilseck. Sentences of more than one year came about as often at both: 10 of 38 Fort Wainwright convictions (26%), against 27%.
18 of 36 convicted enlisted members at Fort Wainwright received a punitive discharge: 12 bad-conduct discharges and 6 dishonorable discharges. At Vilseck, the share was 73%. 2 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Fort Wainwright records, and none was dismissed.
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Vilseck (Europe) cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 4 | 11% | 9% |
| Under 6 months | 16 | 42% | 36% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 8 | 21% | 27% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 9 | 24% | 18% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 3% | 9% |
Court Level
Fort Wainwright held 23 general courts-martial and 15 special courts-martial, with the level not listed for 7 cases. The general share was 61% of the cases with a court level listed, against 67% at Vilseck.
General courts-martial produced a median confinement of 1.2 years, and 38% were contested. Special courts-martial produced a median of 30 days, and 20% were contested. Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement or a dishonorable discharge.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Wainwright | 45 | 26% | 5 of 10 | 6 months | 50% |
| Vilseck (Europe) | 43 | 49% | 10 of 21 | 8 months | 73% |
Forum and Rank
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 18% of Fort Wainwright cases with the forum listed: 7 enlisted panels and 1 officer panel. The other 36 were judge alone. Among contested cases, members heard 7 of 11 (64%).
28 accused were junior enlisted (E-1 to E-4), 15 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 2 were officers or warrant officers. The sheet describes this mix as more junior than Vilseck, where 58% were junior enlisted.
Years in the Data
The Fort Wainwright records run from November 2020 through December 2023. By year: 2020: 2, 2021: 14, 2022: 10, 2023: 19. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020, and Army records in this data are sparse before 2021.
What the Records Cannot Show
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms. Nonjudicial punishment and administrative separation do not appear in them.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Fort Wainwright (45) and Vilseck (Europe) (43) with trial dates in 2020–2023. Each figure for Fort Wainwright is set beside the same figure for Vilseck (Europe).
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)
- Vilseck (Europe): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Camp Humphreys and Fort Riley, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Comparing Fort Hood and Fort Campbell: Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Comparing Fort Leonard Wood and Fort Benning: Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Comparing Fort Polk and Fort Knox: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Riley and Fort Benning: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Sill and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson: Army Courts-Martial, 2020–2023
- Comparing Fort Stewart and Kaiserslautern (Europe): Army Courts-Martial, 2024–2026
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Fort Wainwright, 2020–2023
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.