William Brassfield, a retired Army master sergeant, was recalled to active duty to face a court-martial at Fort Novosel, Ala., shown here. He pleaded guilty May 30, 2025, to raping three children between 1989 and 2008 and was sentenced by a military judge to eight years in prison. (Kelly Morris/U.S. Army)
A former Army master sergeant who had spent the past 17 years in retirement will instead be spending time behind bars for raping three children over a span of nearly two decades.
William Brassfield, 63, was recalled to active duty to face a general court-martial at Fort Novosel, Ala., and pleaded guilty May 30 to three counts of rape, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said Wednesday.
A military judge sentenced him to eight years in prison. In addition, he was reduced in rank to private, according to a statement issued Tuesday by the special trial counsel.
Brassfield was a chief instructor at Goodfellow Air Force Base in San Angelo, Texas, when he retired in 2008, according to the statement. The period of Brassfield’s crimes stretched from 1989 to 2008, the Army Office of Special Trial Counsel said.
His first victim was an 11-year-old girl in Alabama, whom he raped over several months in 1989, prosecutors said. He committed the same crime against a 14-year-old girl in Tennessee between 1989 and 1990, then raped a 6-year-old girl in Texas from 2007 to 2008, according to the statement.
All three victims, who are now adults, testified during Brassfield’s trial.
“This conviction is the result of strength and courage of the women who survived the accused’s abuse and were willing to come forward and share the worst moments of their lives,” prosecutor Maj. Morghan Beaudoin said in the statement.
The youngest victim reported the abuse during a call to a suicide hotline. That prompted the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division to open a case, which brought the additional crimes to light, the statement said.
Prosecutors were limited in the charges they could bring against Brassfield because of the statute of limitations, jurisdictional issues and other factors, according to the statement.
Retired members of the armed forces remain subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. If a serious crime occurred while a person was on active duty, the military may retain jurisdiction, even years later.
To try them in a court-martial, the military often needs to recall them to active duty. Brassfield was administratively assigned to the 1st Aviation Brigade at Fort Novosel for his trial.
Upon release, Brassfield will be required to register as a sex offender.
