Inside 23 Courts-Martial at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, 2016–2018
Whiteman AFB, Missouri held 23 courts-martial from 2016–2018. Orders violations (Article 92) appeared in 37% of cases with charges listed, compared with 16% across the Air Force. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with 4 months Air Force-wide.
Understanding Trends in Military Practice · 6 min read
Trends › By Installation › Whiteman AFB, Missouri › 2016–2018
Short answer: Whiteman AFB, Missouri held 23 courts-martial from 2016–2018. Orders violations (Article 92) appeared in 37% of cases with charges listed, compared with 16% across the Air Force. The median confinement was 6 months, compared with 4 months Air Force-wide.
Orders Violations Were Charged More Often
19 of the 23 cases have a charge list, and each article counts once per case. Article 92, failure to obey an order or regulation, appeared in 7 of them (37%). Across the Air Force, the share was 16%. Drug offenses (Article 112a) were the most common charge, in 53% of cases, compared with 48%.
Article 128 (assault) appeared in 16% of cases, compared with 11%. Article 111 (drunken or reckless driving) appeared in 11%, compared with 4%. Article 134 (the general article) was about the same as the service rate: 26% compared with 25%. Sexual assault (Article 120) at 11% compared with 9%, and offenses against a child (Article 120b) at 11% compared with 10%, were each close to the service figures.
| UCMJ Article | Cases | Share here | Share, the rest of the Air Force |
|---|---|---|---|
| Art. 112a Wrongful use, possession of controlled substances | 10 | 53% | 48% |
| Art. 92 Failure to obey order or regulation | 7 | 37% | 16% |
| Art. 134 General article | 5 | 26% | 25% |
| Art. 128 Assault | 3 | 16% | 11% |
| Art. 120 Rape and sexual assault | 2 | 11% | 9% |
| Art. 120b Rape and sexual assault of a child | 2 | 11% | 10% |
| Art. 111 Drunken or reckless driving | 2 | 11% | 4% |
| Art. 86 AWOL | 1 | 5% | 4% |
A Quarter of Sentences Were 3 Years or Longer
19 cases ended in a conviction on at least one charge. 17 of those sentences included confinement (89%). The median confinement was 6 months, longer than the 4-month median across the Air Force.
A quarter of the sentences with confinement were 3 years or longer. These are adjudged sentences: what the court announced at trial, before any plea-agreement cap, clemency, or appeal. Each covers every charge in the case.
Sentences at Each Court Level
At a general court-martial, any lawful sentence is available, up to long confinement and a dishonorable discharge. At a special court-martial, confinement is capped at one year and a dishonorable discharge is not available.
Whiteman held 11 general courts-martial, 48% of its cases, compared with 47% across the Air Force. All 9 convictions at those trials included confinement, and the median was 3 years. At the 12 special courts-martial, 80% of convictions included confinement, and the median was 6 months.
Full Acquittals
4 of the 23 cases ended in a full acquittal (17%), meaning a finding of not guilty on every charge. Across the Air Force, the share was 20%.
This rate divides by all cases, including guilty pleas. Air Force records from 2016 to 2019 rarely list a guilty plea, so the number of contested cases is unknown for this period. Air Force records also rarely list charges in full acquittals. That is one reason only 19 cases have a charge list.
Punitive Discharges
For an enlisted member, a punitive discharge is a bad-conduct or dishonorable discharge. 12 of 19 convicted enlisted members received one: 7 bad-conduct and 5 dishonorable. That is 63%, compared with 55% for the Air Force as a whole.
Members whose sentence had no punitive discharge can still be administratively separated later. These records do not include administrative separations.
Who Decided Guilt, and Rank
In most cases, the accused picks between a military judge alone and a panel of members. A military judge alone decided 14 cases. Officer panels heard 6, and enlisted panels heard 2. Members heard 36% of cases, compared with 45% across the Air Force.
By rank, 18 of the accused were junior enlisted members and 5 were NCOs. There were 0 officers. The group was more junior than the rest of the Air Force.
Case Counts and Comparison Bases
The trials took place from March 2016 through November 2018: 8 in 2016, 7 in 2017, and 8 in 2018. The 23 cases were 2% of the 991 Air Force courts-martial in those years.
FE Warren AFB, Wyoming and Vandenberg SFB, California each held 23 cases in the same years. The median confinement at Whiteman, 6 months, was between FE Warren's 5 months and Vandenberg's 8 months. Whiteman's punitive discharge rate, 63%, was between FE Warren's 44% and Vandenberg's 79%.
| Installation | Cases | Contested | Full acquittals (decided contested) | Median confinement | Punitive discharge (enlisted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whiteman AFB, Missouri | 23 | — | — | 6 months | 63% |
| FE Warren AFB, Wyoming | 23 | — | — | 5 months | 44% |
| Vandenberg SFB, California | 23 | — | — | 8 months | 79% |
Before the 2019 Rules
Every trial here took place before January 1, 2019, the date the Military Justice Act of 2016 took effect. The act brought fixed panel sizes, written plea agreements, and a judge-alone special court-martial capped at six months with no punitive discharge. None of that applied to these cases.
What the Records Do Not Show
Trial records list charges, findings, and sentences, with trial dates but not offense dates. They do not show the evidence, the plea terms, or misconduct handled by nonjudicial punishment or administrative separation. Air Force records from these years never report plea agreements and rarely record guilty pleas.
Dates and sources for the law changes mentioned here: UCMJ change timeline.
How We Counted
Every court-martial in the data tried at Whiteman AFB, Missouri with a trial date in 2016–2018 (23 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
- Whiteman AFB, Missouri: Court-Martial Data and Trends (hub)
- Air Force Courts-Martial: Data and Trends (hub)
- By Installation (hub)
- FE Warren AFB, Wyoming Courts-Martial, 2016–2018: What 23 Cases Show (same years, similar size)
- Inside 23 Courts-Martial at Vandenberg SFB, California, 2016–2018 (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
- Barksdale AFB, Louisiana, 2016–2018: Charges, Verdicts, and Sentences in 27 Cases
- Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona Courts-Martial, 2019–2023: What 29 Cases Show
- Search every case in Military Trial Results (members)
Military Judges Who Presided Over Cases at Whiteman AFB, Missouri, 2016–2018
- Jefferson B. Brown
- John C. Degnan
- James R. Dorman
- Donald R. Eller Jr.
- Christina M. Jimenez
- Mark W. Milam
- Bradley A. Morris
- Lyndell M. Powell
- Matthew D. Talcott
- Brian D. Teter
- Marvin W. Tubbs II
- Charles G. Warren
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.