Article 15, Summary Courts-Martial, and Administrative Actions: Discipline Short of a Court-Martial
Key takeaways
- Commanders choose the forum — and the forum determines your rights, the punishment ceiling, and what lands in your record.
- Article 15s and summary courts-martial are refusable: except aboard a vessel, you can demand trial by court-martial instead.
- None of these forums produces a federal conviction — but performance-filed records drive promotion non-selects, separation boards, and clearance problems.
- Every forum has deadlines measured in days, not weeks — the decision period at an Article 15, the five-day appeal window, the response window on a GOMOR.
The discipline spectrum
Reprimand / GOMOR→
Article 15 / NJP→
Summary court-martial→
Administrative separation→
Special / general court-martial
The spectrum runs from purely corrective measures to federal criminal trial, and the commander — advised by the legal office — picks the rung. The choice is discretionary but not unbounded: superiors cannot dictate outcomes to subordinate commanders, predetermined punishments are prohibited, and pressure from above can amount to unlawful command influence. For the accused, each rung trades punishment severity against procedural protection — which is why the forum fight is often the case.
The forums, one by one
Nonjudicial punishment (Article 15)
The workhorse of military discipline: commander-imposed punishment for minor offenses, with capped penalties, no conviction, and a defined set of rights — counsel consultation, a hearing, the demand for trial, and one appeal. Start with the complete Article 15 guide; the deep dives cover punishments, refusal, appeals, and the court-martial comparison.
Summary court-martial
A one-officer proceeding for enlisted members, quicker than a special court-martial and more formal than an Article 15, with confinement up to 30 days possible for junior enlisted — but no punitive discharge and no federal conviction. Like the Article 15, it can be refused. See the complete summary court-martial guide.
Reprimands and GOMORs
A general officer memorandum of reprimand is administrative, not punitive — and for officers and senior NCOs it is frequently the most career-lethal document on this page, because a permanently filed GOMOR drives promotion boards and show-cause proceedings. The rebuttal window is short and the rebuttal is the fight.
Administrative separation
Separation boards and Boards of Inquiry decide retention and discharge characterization — honorable, general, or other-than-honorable — with lifetime consequences for benefits and civilian employment. They often follow an Article 15 or GOMOR, using the earlier record as the evidence. Defending the earlier action is defending the board that hasn’t been convened yet.
What this means if your commander is “handling it at the unit”
Quiet forums produce quiet damage. Because no one says “felony,” service members routinely face Article 15s, GOMORs, and boards without counsel — and discover the real cost at the next promotion board, reenlistment window, or clearance review. Treat any formal action — a first reading, a referred GOMOR, a notification of separation processing — as the career-defining event it is, and get a defense lawyer’s eyes on it inside the response window.
Guides in this section
Frequently asked questions
Can a commander punish me without a court-martial?
Yes — through nonjudicial punishment under Article 15, administrative reprimands, and corrective measures. But NJP and summary courts-martial are refusable forums: except aboard a vessel, you may demand trial by court-martial instead, which forces the government to prove its case under full due process.
Is an Article 15 or GOMOR a criminal record?
No. Neither produces a federal conviction or appears in civilian criminal databases. Their damage is internal: filed in your military record, they drive promotion boards, separation actions, and clearance adjudications — which is why the filing decision and rebuttal matter so much.
What is the difference between NJP and administrative separation?
NJP punishes a specific offense with capped punishments and is over in weeks. Administrative separation decides whether you stay in the service at all, and with what characterization of discharge — a decision with lifetime benefit and employment consequences. One often becomes the evidence for the other.
Do I get a lawyer for an Article 15 or a separation board?
You have the right to consult military defense counsel before accepting an Article 15, and to detailed counsel for administrative separation boards involving potential OTH discharges. You may also retain civilian defense counsel for any of these actions — often decisive in board cases, where the rules of engagement favor the prepared.
About the attorneys behind this guide
Michael Waddington, Civilian Military Defense Lawyer
Michael Waddington has defended the full discipline spectrum for more than 25 years — Article 15s, summary courts-martial, GOMOR rebuttals, separation boards, Boards of Inquiry, and the courts-martial waiting at the end of the escalation ladder. A former Army prosecutor and defense counsel, he knows how commands and legal offices choose forums, and how to make that choice work for the accused instead of against them.
Alexandra González-Waddington, Founding Partner
Alexandra González-Waddington, founding partner of Gonzalez & Waddington and the author of this section, has spent more than 20 years defending service members in the quiet forums where careers are actually decided — NJP hearings, reprimand rebuttals, separation boards, and Boards of Inquiry — alongside serious UCMJ trial work in sexual assault, domestic violence, and violent offense cases worldwide.
Talk to a civilian court-martial defense lawyer today
Gonzalez & Waddington defends Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Guardians, and Coast Guardsmen worldwide — in UCMJ investigations, courts-martial, Article 15/NJP actions, GOMOR rebuttals, administrative separation boards, and Boards of Inquiry. We defend the whole case: the investigation, the trial, the administrative fallout, and the long-term consequences to your rank, retirement, clearance, and discharge.
Sources for this guide include the Uniform Code of Military Justice, the Manual for Courts-Martial (2024 ed.), the Rules for Courts-Martial, the TJAGLCS Criminal Law Deskbook, and the cited decisions of the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces and the service Courts of Criminal Appeals. It is attorney advertising and general legal information — not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney–client relationship. Every case turns on its own facts. Service procedures vary; Army references (AR 27-10) are noted where used.