Quantico, Virginia in 2018: 21 Courts-Martial, Year in Review
Quantico, Virginia had 21 courts-martial in 2018. The median confinement was 11 months, longer than the 7 months across the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 30% of cases, compared with 15% service-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 5 min read
Trends › By Installation › Quantico, Virginia › 2018
Short answer: Quantico, Virginia had 21 courts-martial in 2018. The median confinement was 11 months, longer than the 7 months across the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 30% of cases, compared with 15% service-wide.
Longer Confinement Terms
Of the 21 cases, 17 ended in a conviction on at least one charge. Confinement was part of 10 of those sentences (59%).
The median confinement was 11 months. Across all Navy and Marine Corps cases in 2018, the median was 7 months. Among the sentences that included confinement, a quarter were 2.2 years or longer.
These figures are adjudged sentences. They were set at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.
Which Articles Were Charged?
The charges are listed in 20 of the 21 records. A case with several articles counts once under each article.
Article 134 (general article) appeared in 6 cases (30%), compared with 15% across the Navy and Marine Corps. Article 92 (failure to obey an order or regulation) appeared in 25% of cases, compared with 13%. Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) also appeared in 25%, compared with 16%.
Assault under Article 128 was charged less often here: 25% of cases, compared with 34% service-wide. Drug charges under Article 112a appeared in 20%, compared with 26%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Navy and Marine Corps-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 134 General article | 6 | 30% | 15% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 5 | 25% | 16% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 5 | 25% | 34% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 5 | 25% | 13% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 4 | 20% | 26% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 3 | 15% | 12% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 10% | 10% |
| Art. 81 Conspiracy | 2 | 10% | 9% |
An Older, More Senior Group of Accused
Among the accused with rank recorded, 4 were junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4), 12 were NCOs (E-5 to E-9), and 1 was an officer or warrant officer. Across the Navy and Marine Corps, 61% of the accused were junior enlisted, so this group was more senior.
General courts-martial made up 12 of the 21 cases (57%), compared with 45% in the rest of the Navy and Marine Corps. A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial caps confinement at one year and cannot impose a dishonorable discharge.
Punitive Discharges
Of 16 convicted enlisted members, 9 received a punitive discharge: 8 bad-conduct discharges and 1 dishonorable discharge. That share, 56%, is lower than the 66% across the Navy and Marine Corps.
The 1 convicted officer or warrant officer was not dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Bremerton and San Diego
Bremerton, Washington tried 28 cases and San Diego, California tried 36 in the same year. Quantico had the longest median confinement of the 3, at 11 months, compared with 6 months at Bremerton and 8 months at San Diego. Its punitive discharge share, 56%, was higher than the 46% at Bremerton and lower than the 63% at San Diego.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quantico, Virginia | 21 | 0 of 1 | — | 11 months | 56% |
| Bremerton, Washington | 28 | 18% | 0 of 5 | 6 months | 46% |
| San Diego, California | 36 | 26% | 7 of 9 | 8 months | 63% |
Before the Military Justice Act of 2016
All of these trials took place before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. That law later set fixed panel sizes, added judge-alone special courts-martial, and introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases.
What the Records Do Not Show
The records list charges, pleas, findings, and sentences, with trial dates rather than offense dates. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or conduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 often leave out the plea and forum.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Quantico, Virginia with a trial date in 2018 (21 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
- Quantico, Virginia: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- By Year (hub)
- What Quantico, Virginia Tried in 2017 (previous / next)
- Quantico, Virginia in 2019: 12 Courts-Martial, Year in Review (previous / next)
- Quantico, Virginia Courts-Martial, 2013–2018: What 37 Cases Show (the whole period)
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2015
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2017
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2018
- A Year of Courts-Martial at Bremerton, Washington: 2020
- 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.