An RAF Lossiemouth serviceman faces being discharged after battering two men unconscious while home on leave.
Ryan Cameron, 28, was visiting friends in Lancashire last year when he drunkenly attacked two strangers and knocked both of them out cold.
The Afghanistan veteran appeared at Liverpool Crown Court and admitted inflicting grievous bodily harm and wounding.
A judge told him he had used his “boxing ability and physical size” to seriously injure two “perfectly innocent bystanders”.
But Cameron walked free from court after judge Robert Warnock decided that jailing him “would not serve this country”.
He instead suspended a 15-month prison sentence for two years, and said it was up to RAF chiefs to decide whether he should be thrown out of the air force.
Cameron has served his country for seven years, and a spokesman for RAF Lossiemouth said senior officers would evaluate the details of the case before deciding on what action to take.
The incident happened in the early hours of Sunday, April 26, when Cameron stole drinks from a group of friends including Mark Williams and David Crouch at a nightspot in Ormskirk, near Liverpool.
Prosecutor Henry Riding said there was then an altercation, in which the serviceman “decked” Mr Williams and “knocked him out cold”.
Mr Riding added: “Then when Mr Crouch approached Cameron, he was struck in exactly the same way.”
Mr Crouch was left with bleeding on the brain, and Mr Williams suffered multiple fractures to his face.
Police officers only managed to control Cameron after threatening to use CS gas.
Lawyer Nicholas Walker said Cameron had been commended for his services at Camp Bastion during a tour of Afghanistan in which he worked to repatriate bodies and clear areas following insurgent attacks.
Judge Warnock expressed “straightforward admiration” for Cameron’s RAF work but ordered him to pay a combined £3,500 in compensation to his victims.
The judge told him: “You have to stop drinking so much, and if the RAF retains your services they will address such matters if necessary.”
A spokeswoman for RAF Lossiemouth said: “A junior non-commissioned officer based at Lossiemouth, Ryan Cameron, appeared in court in relation to an incident which occurred in Ormskirk.
“The RAF will consider the court’s findings and take any appropriate action.”
