What Was Tried at Vilseck (Europe), 2020–2023? 43 Courts-Martial
The records hold 43 courts-martial at Vilseck in Europe from 2020 to 2023. 49% were contested, compared with 35% Army-wide. Assault (Article 128) was charged in 39% of cases, compared with 31% across the Army.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 7 min read
Trends › By Installation › Vilseck (Europe) › 2020–2023
Short answer: The records hold 43 courts-martial at Vilseck in Europe from 2020 to 2023. 49% were contested, compared with 35% Army-wide. Assault (Article 128) was charged in 39% of cases, compared with 31% across the Army.
49% of Cases Were Contested
A case is contested when the accused pleads not guilty to at least one charge. At Vilseck, 21 cases had a not-guilty or mixed plea and 22 had a guilty plea. The contested share was 49%. For all Army cases in the same years, the share was 35%.
20 of the 22 guilty pleas are recorded with a plea agreement, and 2 have no entry. Army records show whether there was an agreement, but not what it said. The terms and any sentence limits are not in the records.
Results in Contested Cases
21 contested cases reached a verdict. 10 ended in a full acquittal, a rate of 48%. That is higher than the 37% in the rest of the Army. 5 more cases ended in a partial acquittal, meaning the accused was found not guilty of at least one charge but guilty of another.
Army results list findings charge by charge. For that reason, partial acquittals appear often in Army records.
Assault, Threats, and Domestic Violence
41 of the 43 records list the charges, and a case with several articles counts under each one. Assault (Article 128) appeared in 39% of cases, compared with 31% across the Army. Communicating threats (Article 115) appeared in 12%, compared with 5%. Domestic violence (Article 128b) appeared in 20%, compared with 13% Army-wide.
The general article (Article 134) was charged less often: 12% of cases here, compared with 22% for the Army. Rape and sexual assault (Article 120) was charged in 29% of cases, compared with 25% Army-wide.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the Army as a whole |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 16 | 39% | 31% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 12 | 29% | 25% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 8 | 20% | 15% |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 8 | 20% | 13% |
| Art. 80 Attempts | 5 | 12% | 8% |
| Art. 115 Malingering before 2019, communicating threats since | 5 | 12% | 5% |
| Art. 134 General article | 5 | 12% | 22% |
| Art. 109 Property other than military; waste, spoilage, destruction | 4 | 10% | 2% |
Results by Charge
10 of 16 cases charging Article 128 ended in a conviction on that article. The median confinement for those convictions was 9 months. 6 of 12 cases charging Article 120 ended in a conviction on that article, and the median confinement for those convictions was 2.3 years.
6 of 8 cases charging Article 128b ended in a conviction on that article, with a median confinement of 2 months. 5 of 8 cases charging Article 92 (orders violations) did, with a median of 10 months. A case can include a conviction on one article and an acquittal on another, so these rows overlap.
Guilty pleas also differed by charge. Cases charging Article 128 ended in a guilty plea 50% of the time (8 of 16). Cases charging Article 120 ended in a guilty plea 17% of the time (2 of 12). The records do not say why an accused pleaded guilty or contested.
| Article | Cases charging it | Convicted of it (share) | Median confinement when convicted of it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 128 Assault | 16 | 10 (62%) | 9 months |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 12 | 6 (50%) | 2.3 years |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 8 | 5 (5 of 8) | 10 months |
| Art. 128b Domestic violence | 8 | 6 (6 of 8) | 2 months |
Confinement After a Conviction
91% of the 33 convictions included confinement. The median confinement was 8 months, compared with an Army-wide median of 6 months. A quarter of the sentences were 1.5 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal, and each one covers every charge in the case.
9 of 33 convictions (27%) had confinement longer than one year, the same as the 27% for all Army cases. 9% of convictions had no confinement, compared with 17%. 27% had confinement from 6 months to 1 year, compared with 17%.
| Adjudged confinement | Convictions | Share here | Share, the whole Army docket |
|---|---|---|---|
| No confinement | 3 | 9% | 17% |
| Under 6 months | 12 | 36% | 39% |
| 6 months to 1 year | 9 | 27% | 17% |
| More than 1 year, under 5 years | 6 | 18% | 19% |
| 5 years or more | 3 | 9% | 8% |
Most Cases Were General Courts-Martial
A general court-martial can impose any lawful sentence, including long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. A special court-martial can adjudge no more than one year of confinement and no dishonorable discharge. At Vilseck, general courts-martial heard 28 of the 42 cases with a court level listed (67%). The court level is not listed for 1 case.
At general courts-martial, the median confinement was 1 year, and 61% of cases were contested. At the 14 special courts-martial, the median confinement was 4 months, and 21% of cases were contested.
Punitive Discharges, Rank, and Who Decided Guilt
A punitive discharge is a bad-conduct discharge or a dishonorable discharge for an enlisted member. 73% of convicted enlisted members received one: 16 bad-conduct discharges and 8 dishonorable discharges. The rest of the Army had the same rate, 73%. A sentence without a punitive discharge does not rule out a later administrative separation.
Junior enlisted members (E-1 to E-4) were 58% of the accused, and NCOs were 42%. There were no officers. Army-wide, junior enlisted members were 57%.
A military judge alone decided guilt in 30 of 42 cases with the forum listed (71%). Enlisted panels heard 12. Members heard 12 of the 20 contested cases (60%).
Fort Wainwright and Fort Polk
Fort Wainwright and Fort Polk held a similar number of Army cases in these years. Vilseck had the highest contested share of the 3: 49%, compared with 26% at Fort Wainwright and 35% at Fort Polk.
The median confinement was 8 months at Vilseck, 6 months at Fort Wainwright, and 1.3 years at Fort Polk. The punitive discharge rate for convicted enlisted members was 73% at Vilseck, 50% at Fort Wainwright, and 96% at Fort Polk.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vilseck (Europe) | 43 | 49% | 10 of 21 | 8 months | 73% |
| Fort Wainwright | 45 | 26% | 5 of 10 | 6 months | 50% |
| Fort Polk | 40 | 35% | 9 of 14 | 1.3 years | 96% |
Case Counts and What the Records Do Not Show
There was 1 case in 2020, 18 in 2021, 15 in 2022, and 9 in 2023. That is 3% of the 1,581 Army courts-martial in those years. The services were required to begin publishing trial records under Article 140a by December 2020. Army records in this data are sparse before 2021, so the 2020 count is low.
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 separations.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Vilseck (Europe) with a trial date in 2020–2023 (43 cases), compared with all 1,581 Army 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
- Vilseck (Europe): Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Army Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- Vilseck (Europe) Courts-Martial, 2024–2026: What 61 Cases Show (another period)
- What Was Tried at Fort Wainwright, 2020–2023? 45 Courts-Martial (same years, similar size)
- Fort Polk Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 40 Cases Show (same years, similar size)
- Did Assault Cases at Vilseck (Europe) Change After 2024?
- Camp Humphreys, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 69 Cases
- Fort Bliss, 2020–2023: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 102 Cases
- Fort Bragg Courts-Martial, 2020–2023: What 143 Cases Show
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Vilseck (Europe), 2020–2023
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.