Smaller Air Force Installations: 177 Courts-Martial Together
The records hold 177 courts-martial from 2016–2026 at Air Force installations with fewer than 20 cases each.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
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Short answer: The records hold 177 courts-martial from 2016–2026 at Air Force installations with fewer than 20 cases each. Taken together, these cases were contested more often than the Air Force as a whole (56% against 48%), and convictions brought a median confinement of 6 months, compared with 4 months service-wide.
What This Group Covers
Each installation in this group had fewer than 20 Air Force courts-martial in the data. Counted one base at a time, the numbers are too small to compare, so this post combines them. The comparison throughout is the Air Force as a whole.
The data runs from January 2016 through August 2026, and the 2026 count is a partial year. The yearly count was 12 in 2016, 18 in 2017, 16 in 2018, 19 in 2019, 18 in 2020, 14 in 2021, 19 in 2022, 15 in 2023, 24 in 2024, 12 in 2025, and 10 in 2026.
The installations with the most cases in the group were JBSA - Ft Sam Houston, Texas (17), Laughlin AFB, Texas (15), Altus AFB, Oklahoma (14), Kunsan AB, South Korea (14), and Creech AFB, Nevada (14). These five account for 42% of the 177 cases.
More Cases Were Contested
101 of the 177 records list the plea. 57 accused entered a not-guilty or mixed plea, and 44 pleaded guilty. The contested share, 56%, is higher than the 48% for the Air Force as a whole.
Pleas differed by charge. Cases charging Article 134 (the general article) ended in a guilty plea 80% of the time (8 of 10). Of the cases charging Article 120 (rape and sexual assault) with a plea recorded, 0 of 12 ended in a guilty plea. The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested the charges.
Full Acquittals in Contested Cases
Full acquittals came in 56% of the 57 decided contested cases, higher than the 49% for the Air Force as a whole. In a full acquittal, the accused is acquitted of all charges.
Another 9 cases were partial acquittals: not guilty of at least one charge or specification, but guilty of another. Air Force results give one verdict per case, so a partial acquittal appears only when an appeals opinion reports it.
The accused usually chooses whether a military judge alone or a panel of members decides guilt. Members heard 47 of the 57 contested cases (82%). Full acquittals came in 28 of 47 contested members cases (60%) and in 4 of 10 contested judge-alone cases (40%).
Confinement and Sentence Bands
Of 125 convictions, 94 carried confinement. The median confinement was 6 months, longer than the 4 months for the Air Force as a whole. A quarter of the terms were 1.5 years or longer.
The share with no confinement was also higher: 31 convictions (25%), compared with 15% service-wide. The band under 6 months held 48 convictions (38%), against 47%. 29 of the 125 convictions brought more than one year of confinement (23%), the same share as the Air Force as a whole.
These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each covers every charge in the case.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the Air Force as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 31 | 25% | 15% |
| Under 6 months | 48 | 38% | 47% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 17 | 14% | 15% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 19 | 15% | 16% |
| 5 years or more | 10 | 8% | 7% |
Fewer Drug Charges
The charge lists cover 133 of the 177 cases. Article 112a (drug offenses) was the most common charge, in 32 cases (24%), but that share is lower than the 38% for the Air Force as a whole.
Article 128 (assault) was charged in 19% of cases, against 15%. Article 120 was charged in 15%, against 11%. Article 128b (domestic violence, numbered since 2019) appeared in 8%, against 6%.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Air Force as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 32 | 24% | 38% |
| Art. 134 General article | 28 | 21% | 23% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 25 | 19% | 15% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 20 | 15% | 11% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 17 | 13% | 16% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence, numbered since 2019 | 11 | 8% | 6% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 11 | 8% | 8% |
| Art. 121 Larceny | 10 | 8% | 6% |
Convictions and Sentences by Charge
Air Force records list charges mainly for convictions, so the table below gives conviction counts and sentences, not conviction rates. Of 20 cases charging Article 120, 14 ended in a conviction on that article, with a median confinement of 3 years.
All 28 cases charging Article 134 show a conviction on it, with a median of 1.2 years. Convictions on Article 112a (31) and Article 128 (23) each brought a median of 4 months.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 32 | 31 | 4 months |
| Art. 134 General article | 28 | 28 | 1.2 years |
| Art. 128 Assault | 25 | 23 | 4 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 20 | 14 | 3 years |
Discharges, Court Level, and Rank
A punitive discharge followed 51% of enlisted convictions (33 bad-conduct, 24 dishonorable), compared with 57% for the Air Force as a whole. 14 convicted officers or warrant officers appear in the group, and 6 were dismissed. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
General courts-martial made up 57% of the cases (101 of 177), with a median confinement of 1.2 years; 68% were contested. The 76 special courts-martial had a median of 3 months, and 39% were contested.
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) made up 54% of the accused, NCOs 33%, and officers 13%. Across the Air Force as a whole, junior enlisted members were 62%.
Limits of the Combined Records
The records give trial dates, not offense dates. They do not describe the evidence or the plea terms, and they do not include nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Air Force records also rarely list charges in full acquittals.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Air Force courts-martial at 19 installations that each have fewer than 20 cases in the data (177 cases together).
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
- By Installation (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- 120 Courts-Martial in Joint Base San Antonio, 2016–2025
- Courts-Martial in Europe: How the Services Compare, 2016–2025
- Courts-Martial in Hawaii: How the Services Compare, 2016–2025
- Courts-Martial in Japan and Guam: How the Services Compare, 2016–2025
- Smaller Army Installations: 153 Courts-Martial Together
- Smaller Navy-Marine Corps Installations: 112 Courts-Martial Together
- What Was Tried in Alaska? Courts-Martial 2016–2025
- 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.