Captain’s Mast is the Navy and Coast Guard name for non-judicial punishment under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, a disciplinary proceeding in which your commanding officer can punish you for minor misconduct without sending the case to a court-martial. Captain’s Mast non-judicial punishment does not produce a criminal conviction, but it can cost you pay, rank, liberty, and, in many cases, your future in the service. The Marine Corps calls the same proceeding “Office Hours”; the Army and Air Force call it an “Article 15.” The authority, the rights, and the punishment ceilings all come from the same federal statute.
What a Commanding Officer Can Do to You
The maximum punishment turns on two things: whether you are enlisted or an officer, and the rank of the commander holding the mast. The statute draws the line at the grade of major or lieutenant commander.
Enlisted Members
A commander below the grade of major or lieutenant commander can impose, at most:
- Forfeiture of up to 7 days’ pay
- Up to 14 consecutive days of extra duties
- Up to 14 consecutive days of restriction
- Reduction of one pay grade, if that grade is within the officer’s promotion authority
- Up to 7 consecutive days of correctional custody
A commander at the grade of major, lieutenant commander, or higher can impose considerably more:
- Forfeiture of up to half of one month’s pay per month for two months
- Up to 45 consecutive days of extra duties
- Up to 60 consecutive days of restriction
- Reduction to the lowest or any intermediate pay grade within the officer’s promotion authority, though an enlisted member above E-4 cannot be reduced more than two pay grades
- Up to 30 consecutive days of correctional custody
Any commanding officer can also issue an admonition or reprimand, on its own or on top of other punishment.
Officers
Officers cannot be reduced in rank at NJP. Any commanding officer can restrict an officer to specified limits for up to 30 consecutive days. Heavier punishments require a general court-martial convening authority or a general or flag officer in command:
- Arrest in quarters for up to 30 consecutive days
- Forfeiture of up to half of one month’s pay per month for two months
- Restriction for up to 60 consecutive days
- Detention of up to half of one month’s pay per month for three months
Detention is not the same as forfeiture. Detained pay is held back temporarily and returned to you after the detention period; forfeited pay is gone for good.
Can You Refuse and Demand a Court-Martial?
In most cases, yes. You can turn down NJP and demand trial by court-martial, and the commanding officer cannot force the mast on you if you make that demand. Refusing is not a free move, though. The command can drop the matter, send it to a court-martial, or pursue administrative separation instead. A court-martial carries the risk of a federal criminal conviction and heavier punishment, so the decision is a serious one.
The Vessel Exception
The one major exception is the vessel exception. A service member “attached to or embarked in a vessel” cannot refuse non-judicial punishment. The rule dates to the early 1960s and rests on the practical difficulty of running a court-martial at sea.
In 2023, the Secretary of the Navy narrowed how the exception is applied. It now reaches only vessels that are actually operational. If your ship is in dry dock, in extended maintenance, in precommissioning status, or otherwise designated non-operational, you have the same right to refuse NJP as a sailor or Marine on shore duty. Before the clarification, commanders sometimes invoked the exception for ships that had not left port in months.
What Happens at the Hearing
Before anything can be imposed, you are entitled to written notice that NJP is being considered, a description of the specific offenses alleged, and a summary of the evidence. You then have time to decide whether to accept the mast or refuse it.
If you accept, the commanding officer holds a hearing. You appear in person, and the hearing is generally open to the public. You can examine the evidence against you, present your own evidence and witnesses, make a statement, or stay silent. You can bring a spokesperson to speak on your behalf, and that person does not have to be a lawyer. You can waive the personal appearance and submit written materials instead, but only if the imposing officer agrees.
Whether you can talk to a military defense lawyer before you decide depends on your branch. Army and Air Force personnel generally have the right to consult with defense counsel before accepting or refusing NJP. In the Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard, there is no guaranteed right to counsel beforehand, though commands typically encourage it when a lawyer is available.
The offenses handled this way are what the UCMJ calls “minor.” Common examples include failing to report to your assigned place of duty on time, short unauthorized absences, disorderly conduct, minor neglect of duties, disobeying a standing order, and low-value theft. There is no fixed statutory list. The same conduct that draws a mast for one sailor can be sent to a court-martial for another with a worse record.
Appealing the Result
If the commanding officer finds you committed the offense, you can appeal to the next higher commander in the chain of command. You generally have about five calendar days to decide, though the exact window can vary by command. You can appeal on three grounds: that you are innocent, that the punishment was too severe for the offense, or that the commanding officer failed to follow required procedures.
The appeal authority can reduce the punishment or set it aside entirely. It cannot increase it. Appealing cannot make your situation worse. You can submit new written materials with the appeal or simply check the box requesting review without adding anything.
What NJP Does to Your Record and Career
NJP is not a criminal conviction. It does not produce a federal conviction or a criminal record in the civilian sense, and it generally should not appear on a standard civilian background check. It can surface on some federal background checks, and it will follow you inside the service.
How it is filed depends on your rank and branch. In the Army, an Article 15 for an enlisted member at E-4 or below is filed locally and destroyed after two years or on transfer to a new duty station, whichever comes first. For E-5 and above, the commander decides whether to file it in the performance section or the restricted section of the Official Military Personnel File. The performance section is visible to promotion boards; the restricted section is not routinely reviewed but stays in the file permanently. If you already have an Article 15 in the restricted section, any new one automatically goes to the performance section. Other branches have their own filing rules, but higher-ranking members face longer-lasting record consequences across the board.
When you separate, NJP can affect your reenlistment eligibility code. A pattern of misconduct or certain specific offenses at mast can lead to codes that require a waiver before you can enlist again. Some offenses trigger mandatory administrative separation processing regardless of how the misconduct was handled. Drug offenses typically do. Two or more instances of driving under the influence commonly do as well.
Setting NJP Aside or Correcting Your Records
NJP can be set aside, in whole or in part, when the punishment resulted in a “clear injustice.” The authority to set it aside belongs to the original imposing officer, a successor in command, or the next superior general court-martial convening authority. This should generally happen within 120 days. If the mast is set aside, local records are purged of all references to it and your personnel records are corrected.
Some consequences reach beyond what a set-aside can fix. A periodic evaluation that references the NJP, for example, is not undone by the set-aside itself. For that, you can petition the Board for Correction of Military Records, or the Board for Correction of Naval Records depending on your branch, to change the affected documents. It is a slower process, and it is the only route for evaluations and similar records tied to the original punishment.