Comparing Quantico, Virginia and Great Lakes, Illinois: Navy-Marine Corps Courts-Martial, 2013–2018
Quantico, Virginia and Great Lakes, Illinois each had 37 courts-martial in the 2013–2018 records. The median confinement was 3 months at Quantico and 6 months at Great Lakes.
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Trends › By Installation › Quantico, Virginia › vs. Great Lakes, Illinois
Short answer: Quantico, Virginia and Great Lakes, Illinois each had 37 courts-martial in the 2013–2018 records. The median confinement was 3 months at Quantico and 6 months at Great Lakes. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, was charged in 31% of Quantico cases, compared with 15% at Great Lakes.
Nearly All Quantico Cases Are From 2017 and 2018
The Quantico records run from June 2013 to October 2018. There is 1 case in 2013 and 0 in each of 2014, 2015, and 2016. The other cases are 15 in 2017 and 21 in 2018. The Quantico figures on this page therefore describe mostly the last 2 years of the period.
Great Lakes tried the same number of Navy and Marine Corps cases in these years. Larger installations try more cases of every kind, so this page compares shares rather than counts.
Sentences Were Shorter at Quantico
32 Quantico cases ended in a conviction. Confinement was part of 66% of those sentences. Half of the confinement terms were 3 months or less, and the Great Lakes median was 6 months. A quarter of the Quantico sentences were 1.2 years or longer.
No confinement was more common at Quantico: 34% of convictions, compared with 19% at Great Lakes. Sentences of 6 months to 1 year were less common: 9% at Quantico and 29% at Great Lakes. Terms of more than one year were 6 of 32 Quantico convictions (19%), the same share as at Great Lakes.
Every sentence here is the one adjudged at trial. It may have been reduced later by a plea-agreement cap, clemency, or an appeal, and it reflects all of the charges in the case at once.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Great Lakes, Illinois cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 11 | 34% | 19% |
| Under 6 months | 12 | 38% | 32% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 3 | 9% | 29% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 5 | 16% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 1 | 3% | 0% |
Which Articles Were Charged?
36 of the 37 Quantico records list the charges. Each article counts once per case. Article 92 was the most common charge, in 11 cases (31%). Article 112a, the drug article, appeared in 22% of Quantico cases and 9% of Great Lakes cases. Article 107, false official statements, appeared in 22% and 12%.
Article 128, assault, was less common at Quantico: 22% of cases, compared with 47% at Great Lakes. Article 120, rape and sexual assault, appeared in 17% of Quantico cases and 26% of Great Lakes cases. Article 134, the general article, appeared in 17% and 24%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Great Lakes, Illinois cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 11 | 31% | 15% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 8 | 22% | 47% |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 8 | 22% | 9% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 8 | 22% | 12% |
| Art. 134 General article | 6 | 17% | 24% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 6 | 17% | 26% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 4 | 11% | 6% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 6% | 6% |
Conviction and Confinement for the Top Charges
Article 112a ended in a conviction on that article in 8 of 8 cases, with a median confinement of 3 months. Article 92 did so in 10 of 11 cases (91%), with a median of 2 months. Article 107 did so in 7 of 8, with a median of 5 months.
Article 128 had the fewest convictions on that article among the top charges: 5 of 8 cases. Its median confinement was the longest, at 1.4 years. These are small counts. 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. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 11 | 10 (91%) | 2 months |
| Art. 128 Assault | 8 | 5 (5 of 8) | 1.4 years |
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 8 | 8 (8 of 8) | 3 months |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 8 | 7 (7 of 8) | 5 months |
Fewer Punitive Discharges
13 of 30 convicted enlisted members at Quantico received a punitive discharge (43%): 11 bad-conduct discharges and 2 dishonorable discharges. At Great Lakes the share was 60%. For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge means a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge.
2 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the Quantico records, and 1 was dismissed, which is the officer form of a punitive discharge. Without one, an administrative separation can still follow later, outside these records.
General and Special Courts-Martial at Quantico
Quantico had 15 general and 22 special courts-martial. The general share was 41%, compared with 32% at Great Lakes. Of the two levels, only the general court-martial can order a dishonorable discharge or more than a year of confinement. The special court-martial is limited to one year.
The median confinement was 1.5 years in Quantico general courts-martial. In special courts-martial it was 2 months.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Quantico, Virginia | 37 | 1 of 3 | 0 of 1 | 3 months | 43% |
| Great Lakes, Illinois | 37 | 28% | 6 of 10 | 6 months | 60% |
A Mostly NCO Group of Accused
Among the accused with rank recorded, 20 were NCOs, 10 were junior enlisted members, and 2 were officers. The Quantico group was more senior than the Great Lakes group.
Pleas Are Rarely Recorded
Many Navy and Marine Corps records from before December 2020 leave out the plea and forum. At Quantico, only 3 records list a plea, and 1 of the 3 was contested. That is too few to compare contested shares or acquittal rates. At Great Lakes, 28% of cases were contested, and 6 of 10 contested cases that reached a verdict ended in a full acquittal.
Rules in Force and What Is Missing
Every case here was tried before the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect on January 1, 2019. Its later changes, including fixed panel sizes, written plea agreements, and judge-alone special courts-martial, did not apply.
The records list charges, findings, and sentences. They leave out the evidence, the terms of any plea deal, and misconduct handled without a court-martial.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial tried at Quantico, Virginia (37) and Great Lakes, Illinois (37) with trial dates in 2013–2018. Each figure for Quantico, Virginia is set beside the same figure for Great Lakes, Illinois.
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)
- Great Lakes, Illinois: 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.