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Title 10 — Armed Forces

Part II · Chapter 47 — Uniform Code of Military Justice

§ 899. Art. 99. Misbehavior before the enemy

Statutory text

Any member of the armed forces who before or in the presence of the enemy—

(1)

runs away;

(2)

shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is his duty to defend;

(3)

through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property;

(4)

casts away his arms or ammunition;

(5)

is guilty of cowardly conduct;

(6)

quits his place of duty to plunder or pillage;

(7)

causes false alarms in any command, unit, or place under control of the armed forces;

(8)

willfully fails to do his utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is his duty so to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy; or

(9)

does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies when engaged in battle;

shall be punished by death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

Legislative history

Reconstructed from this section’s Code source credit and amendment notes, resolved against the local Statutes at Large. Editorial notes are evidence, not the law that made the change.

  1. (Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 69.) · 70A Stat. 69

    Enacted · 10 U.S.C. § 899

    (Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 69.)

    Source evidence

    Code source credit
    (Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 69.)

0 of 1 references resolved to an enrolled provision · 1 partial

Notes

historicalAndRevision
Historical and Revision Notes
Revised sectionSource (U.S. Code)Source (Statutes at Large)
89950:693.May 5, 1950, ch. 169, § 1 (Art. 99), 64 Stat. 137.

Credits

(Aug. 10, 1956, ch. 1041, 70A Stat. 69.)

Parsed from the official OLRC USLM XML in data/usc_all/usc10.xml · release point 119-108 · OLRC build 2026-04-17

USLM identifier /us/usc/t10/s899