Navy-Marine Corps Orders Violation Cases Against NCOs (E-5 to E-9): Outcomes and Sentences

Trends › By Offense › Article 92 › NCOs (E-5 to E-9)

Based on 226 cases · 2017–2025 · Navy and Marine Corps records · data updated October 24, 2026

Many Convictions Without Confinement or Discharge

Of 210 convictions, 119 included confinement and 91 (43%) did not. Across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases, 27% of convictions had no confinement.

Punitive discharges were also less common. Of the 210 convicted NCOs, 78 received a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. That is 37%, compared with 55% across the service, and 23 of those were dishonorable. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out an administrative separation afterward.

Sentences That Included Confinement

Among the 119 confinement sentences, the median was 6 months, close to the 5 months for the service's Article 92 cases. A quarter were 1.1 years or longer.

Terms under 6 months were 28% of convictions here, compared with 39% overall. Terms from 6 months to 1 year were 14%, compared with 19%. Terms of 5 years or more were 6% of convictions, compared with 4%.

Terms over 1 year were in 30 of 210 convictions (14%), about the same as the 15% for all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge.

More Contested Cases and More Full Acquittals

Of the 226 records, 152 list a plea. Of those, 86 NCOs pleaded guilty and 66 contested at least one charge with a not-guilty or mixed plea. The contested share was 43%, higher than the 36% across the service.

Of the 66 contested cases that reached a verdict, 21% ended in a full acquittal, also higher than the 17% across all Navy and Marine Corps Article 92 cases. Another 24 were partial acquittals: the NCO was found not guilty of at least one charge or specification and guilty of another.

A contested NCO case here ended in a full acquittal more often than across the service. In 24 other contested cases, the NCO was acquitted of at least one charge or specification. After a partial acquittal, the accused is still sentenced for the charges that resulted in a conviction.

Court Level and Confinement

Special courts-martial tried 158 of the 226 cases and general courts-martial tried 68. The general court-martial share was 30%. A special court-martial can impose no more than 1 year of confinement and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.

Sentences differed by court level. At general courts-martial, 82% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 1.2 years. At special courts-martial, only 46% did, and the median was 2 months.

Assault and the General Article Were the Most Common Other Charges

Article 92 was the only charge in 61 of the 226 cases. In the other cases, Article 128 (assault) was charged in 50 cases and Article 134 (general article) in 43.

Article 107 (false official statement) was charged in 28, Article 131b (obstruction, numbered since 2019) in 24, and Article 112a (drug) in 21. Each sentence covers all of the charges in its case.

Cases Each Year

There were between 20 and 31 cases each year: 20 in 2017, 20 in 2018, 31 in 2019, 22 in 2020, 28 in 2021, 25 in 2022, 22 in 2023, 27 in 2024, and 31 in 2025.

Navy and Marine Corps records before December 2020 often omit the plea. That is why only 152 of the 226 records list one.

Installations and Seniority

Camp Lejeune, North Carolina tried 29 of these cases, Camp Pendleton, California 27, San Diego, California 26, Norfolk, Virginia 24, and Quantico, Virginia 14. These 5 locations account for 53% of the 226. Larger installations try more cases of every kind.

All of the accused here were NCOs, so the group is more senior than the service's Article 92 accused overall. The largest difference in outcomes is the share of convictions with neither confinement nor a punitive discharge.

Rule Changes and Record Limits

The Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. New sentencing parameters apply when every guilty finding is for an offense after December 27, 2023. The records list trial dates, not offense dates, so 2024 and 2025 trials include both old-rule and new-rule cases.

Orders violations handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation are not included. The records do not show the evidence, the order involved, or any plea terms.

For what the offense covers and how it is defended, see Article 92 on the law firm's website. Dates and sources for the law changes: 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.