Ramstein AB, Germany Courts-Martial, 2016–2018: What 29 Cases Show
Ramstein AB, Germany held 29 courts-martial from April 2016 through November 2018, 7 of them ended in a full acquittal (24%), compared with 20% across the Air Force. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 32% of cases with charges listed, compared with 25% Air Force-wide.
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Trends › By Installation › Ramstein AB, Germany › 2016–2018
Short answer: Ramstein AB, Germany held 29 courts-martial from April 2016 through November 2018, 7 of them ended in a full acquittal (24%), compared with 20% across the Air Force. Article 134, the general article, was charged in 32% of cases with charges listed, compared with 25% Air Force-wide. 45% of convicted enlisted members received a punitive discharge, compared with 55%.
Full Acquittals Measured Against All Cases
Of the 29 cases, 7 ended in a full acquittal: not guilty of every charge. That is 24% of all cases, compared with 20% in all Air Force cases for those years.
The rate is measured against all cases, not only contested cases. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list the plea when the accused pleaded guilty. For that reason, there is no reliable count of contested cases for this period, and this page reports no contested share.
Members Decided Most Cases
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. At Ramstein, members heard 59% of cases with the forum listed: 8 enlisted panels and 9 officer panels. A judge alone heard the other 12.
There were 9 officer panels and 8 enlisted panels. The Military Justice Act of 2016, which later set fixed panel sizes, took effect on January 1, 2019, after all of these trials.
What Was Charged
Only 22 of the 29 records list the charges. Air Force records rarely list charges in a case that ends in a full acquittal. For that reason, the charge shares come mostly from cases that ended in a conviction.
Within those 22 cases, Article 134 appeared in 32%, compared with 25% Air Force-wide. Article 92 orders violations appeared in 23%, compared with 16%. Article 120b, rape and sexual assault of a child, appeared in 18%, compared with 10%. Article 107 false official statements appeared in 14%, compared with 7%. Drug charges under Article 112a were the most common charge, at 36%, but less common than the 48% across the Air Force.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, Air Force-wide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 8 | 36% | 48% |
| Art. 134 General article | 7 | 32% | 25% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 5 | 23% | 16% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 4 | 18% | 10% |
| Art. 107 False official statements | 3 | 14% | 7% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 2 | 9% | 11% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 2 | 9% | 7% |
| Art. 111 Drunken or reckless driving | 1 | 5% | 4% |
Most Sentences Were Short
73% of the 22 convictions included confinement. The median confinement was 5 months, compared with a 4-month median in all Air Force cases in those years. A quarter of the sentences were 6 months or longer.
These are adjudged sentences, set at trial before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each one covers every charge in the case. 27% of convictions carried no confinement, compared with 18% Air Force-wide. 2 of 22 convictions (9%) carried more than one year, compared with 21% in the rest of the Air Force. No sentence was 5 years or more.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the whole Air Force docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 6 | 27% | 18% |
| Under 6 months | 10 | 45% | 46% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 4 | 18% | 14% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 2 | 9% | 13% |
| 5 years or more | 0 | 0% | 8% |
Fewer Punitive Discharges Than the Air Force Rate
For enlisted members, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. 45% of enlisted convictions at Ramstein included one: 6 bad-conduct and 3 dishonorable discharges. In all Air Force cases in those years, the rate was 55%.
The records list 2 convicted officers or warrant officers, and 1 was dismissed. Dismissal is the officer equivalent of a punitive discharge. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
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. General courts-martial made up 41% of Ramstein cases (12 of 29), and special courts-martial the other 17.
The 12 general courts-martial had a median confinement of 1 year. The 17 special courts-martial had a median of 3 months.
Who Was Accused
The accused were 19 junior enlisted members, 8 NCOs, and 2 officers. That mix is similar to the rest of the Air Force. By year, there were 11 cases in 2016, 12 in 2017, and 6 in 2018. They are 3% of the 991 Air Force courts-martial in those years. The records give trial dates, not offense dates.
Compared With Nellis and Barksdale
Nellis AFB, Nevada (29 cases) and Barksdale AFB, Louisiana (27) tried a similar number of cases in the same years. Ramstein had the longest median confinement of the 3: 5 months, compared with 3 months at Nellis and 4 months at Barksdale.
The punitive discharge rate for convicted enlisted members was 45% at Ramstein, 38% at Nellis, and 53% at Barksdale. None of the 3 has usable plea data for these years.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ramstein AB, Germany | 29 | — | — | 5 months | 45% |
| Nellis AFB, Nevada | 29 | — | — | 3 months | 38% |
| Barksdale AFB, Louisiana | 27 | — | — | 4 months | 53% |
Rules of the Period and What the Records Cannot Show
Every case here was tried before January 1, 2019. On that date the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect. It created judge-alone special courts-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge, and it introduced written plea agreements. None of those changes applied to these cases. Air Force records never report plea agreements. The records also do not show the evidence, plea terms, or conduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Ramstein AB, Germany with a trial date in 2016–2018 (29 cases), compared with all 991 Air Force trials in those years. Dates are trial dates.
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
- Ramstein AB, Germany: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Ramstein AB, Germany, 2019–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 38 Cases (another period)
- Ramstein AB, Germany Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 20 Cases Show (another period)
- Nellis AFB, Nevada, 2016–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 30 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, 2016–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 27 Cases (same years, similar size)
- Andersen AFB, Guam Courts-Martial, 2016–2018: What 13 Cases Show
- Aviano AB, Italy Courts-Martial, 2016–2018: What 16 Cases Show
- Aviano AB, Italy, 2019–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 17 Cases
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Ramstein AB, Germany, 2016–2018
- Willie J. Babor
- Donald R. Eller Jr.
- John C. Harwood
- Michael A. Lewis
- Mark W. Milam
- Vance H. Spath
- Brendon K. Tukey
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.