Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay and Twentynine Palms, California, 2017–2018: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 31 courts-martial from 2017–2018, and Twentynine Palms, California had 30. Article 112a, the drug article, was charged in 48% of Kaneohe Bay cases, compared with 20% at Twentynine Palms.
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Trends › By Installation › Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay › vs. Twentynine Palms, California
Short answer: Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay had 31 courts-martial from 2017–2018, and Twentynine Palms, California had 30. Article 112a, the drug article, was charged in 48% of Kaneohe Bay cases, compared with 20% at Twentynine Palms. The median confinement was 9 months at Kaneohe Bay and 7 months at Twentynine Palms.
Drug Charges Were the Most Common at Kaneohe Bay
All 31 Kaneohe Bay records list the charges. A case that charges several articles counts once under each one. Article 112a, which covers wrongful use and possession of controlled substances, appeared in 15 cases (48%). At Twentynine Palms, it appeared in 20% of cases.
Article 81, conspiracy, appeared in 8 Kaneohe Bay cases (26%) and in 0% of Twentynine Palms cases. Article 107, false official statements, appeared in 16% of cases here and 3% there. Article 128, assault, was less common at Kaneohe Bay: 29% of cases, compared with 40% at Twentynine Palms.
Several other charges appeared at similar rates. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, was charged in 29% of Kaneohe Bay cases and 27% of Twentynine Palms cases. Article 121, larceny, was charged in 23% and 20%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Twentynine Palms, California |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 15 | 48% | 20% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 9 | 29% | 40% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 9 | 29% | 27% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 8 | 26% | 0% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 7 | 23% | 20% |
| Art. 134 General article | 6 | 19% | 13% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 5 | 16% | 3% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 5 | 16% | 13% |
More Sentences of Over One Year
29 Kaneohe Bay cases ended in a conviction, and all 29 sentences included confinement. The median confinement was 9 months, compared with 7 months at Twentynine Palms. A quarter of the Kaneohe Bay sentences were 2 years or longer.
Sentences of more than one year were 11 of 29 convictions (38%), compared with 17% at Twentynine Palms. Sentences of more than 1 year but under 5 years were 31% of convictions at Kaneohe Bay and 0% at Twentynine Palms. Sentences of 5 years or more were 7% at Kaneohe Bay and 17% at Twentynine Palms.
Shorter sentences were less common at Kaneohe Bay. Sentences under 6 months were 28% of convictions here and 38% at Twentynine Palms. Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were 34% here and 46% there.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, Twentynine Palms, California in the same years |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 0 | 0% | 0% |
| Under 6 months | 8 | 28% | 38% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 10 | 34% | 46% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 9 | 31% | 0% |
| 5 years or more | 2 | 7% | 17% |
What the Sentence Figures Mean
These are adjudged sentences. They show what the court announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each sentence covers every charge in the case, not only the most serious one.
Only a general court-martial can adjudge more than one year of confinement. A special court-martial is capped at one year.
Conviction on Each Top Charge
All 15 cases charging Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article (100%). The median confinement when the conviction included Article 112a was 8 months. Article 81 ended in a conviction on that article in 8 of 8 cases, with a median of 1 year.
Article 128 and Article 92 each ended in a conviction on that article in 8 of 9 cases. The median confinement was 1.5 years for Article 128 and 8 months for Article 92. These are small counts, and one case can include several of these articles, so the rows overlap.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 15 | 15 (100%) | 8 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 9 | 8 (8 of 9) | 1.5 years |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 9 | 8 (8 of 9) | 8 months |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 8 | 8 (8 of 8) | 1 year |
Punitive Discharges
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member. At Kaneohe Bay, 79% of enlisted convictions ended with one: 14 bad-conduct discharges and 9 dishonorable discharges. At Twentynine Palms the share was 83%.
A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation. Those separations are not in these records.
General and Special Courts-Martial
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 cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Kaneohe Bay had 13 general courts-martial and 18 special courts-martial. The general share was 42%, compared with 40% at Twentynine Palms. The median confinement was 2 years in the general courts-martial and 6 months in the special courts-martial.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay | 31 | — | — | 9 months | 79% |
| Twentynine Palms, California | 30 | — | — | 7 months | 83% |
Rank of the Accused
Among the accused with rank recorded, 22 were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) and 7 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9). No officers or warrant officers appear. At Twentynine Palms, 83% of the accused were junior enlisted, so the Kaneohe Bay group was more senior.
Timing and the Law in Effect
The 31 cases were tried from January 2017 through April 2018: 24 in 2017 and 7 in 2018. The two installations tried a similar number of cases, so this page compares shares, not counts.
These trials came before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law later set fixed panel sizes, created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and brought in written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases.
Gaps in the Records
Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea and forum. Those fields are missing for these cases, so this page does not report contested shares or acquittal rates. The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or plea terms, and they do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay (31) and Twentynine Palms, California (30) with trial dates in 2017–2018. Each figure for Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay is set beside the same figure for Twentynine Palms, California.
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
- Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe Bay: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Twentynine Palms, California: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Camp Pendleton, California: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2013–2018
- Bremerton, Washington vs. Okinawa, Japan: Two Navy-Marine Corps Installations Side by Side, 2019–2023
- Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Norfolk, Virginia, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Camp Pendleton, California and San Diego, California, 2024–2026: How Their Courts-Martial Compare
- Comparing Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Mayport, Florida: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2013–2018
- Comparing Camp Pendleton, California and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Comparing Norfolk, Virginia and San Diego, California: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2019–2023
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
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.