Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry of the Army of the United States, 1917 Part 59

CERTAIN ARTICLES TO BE READ AND EXPLAINED.

ART. 110. Articles 1, 2, and 29, 54 to 96, inclusive, and 104 to 109, inclusive, shall be read and explained to every soldier at the time of his enlistment or muster in, or within six days thereafter, and shall be read and explained once every six months to the soldiers of every garrison, regiment, or company in the service of the United States.

DEFINITIONS.

ARTICLE 1. The following words when used in these articles shall be construed in the sense indicated in this article, unless the context shows that a different sense is intended, namely:

(a) The word "officer" shall be construed to refer to a commissioned officer;

(b) The word "soldier" shall be construed as including a noncommissioned officer, a private, or any other enlisted man;

(c) The word "company" shall be understood as including a troop or battery; and

(d) The word "battalion" shall be understood as including a squadron.

PERSONS SUBJECT TO MILITARY LAW.

ART. 2. The following persons are subject to these articles and shall be understood as included in the term "any person subject to military law" or "persons subject to military law" whenever used in these articles: _Provided_, That nothing contained in this act, except as specifically provided in article 2, subparagraph (c), shall be construed to apply to any person under the United States naval jurisdiction, unless otherwise specifically provided by law:

(a) All officers and soldiers belonging to the Regular Army of the United States; all volunteers, from the dates of their muster or acceptance into the military service of the United States; and all other persons lawfully called, drafted, or ordered into or to duty or for training in the said service, from the dates they are required by the terms of the call, draft, or order to obey the same.

(b) Cadets.

(c) Officers and soldiers of the Marine Corps when detached for service with the armies of the United States by order of the President: _Provided_, That an officer soldier of the Marine Corps when so detached may be tried by military court-martial for an offense committed against the laws for the government of the naval service prior to his detachment, and for an offense committed against these articles he may be tried by a naval court-martial after such detachment ceases.

(d) All retainers to the camp and all persons accompanying or serving with the armies of the United States without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, and in time of war all such retainers and persons accompanying or serving with the armies of the United States in the field, both within and without the territorial jurisdiction of the United States, though not otherwise subject to these articles.

(e) All persons under sentence adjudged by courts-martini.

(f) All persons admitted into the Regular Army Soldiers' Home at Was.h.i.+ngton. D. C.

ENLISTMENT WITHOUT DISCHARGE.

ART. 29. Any soldier who, without having first received a regular discharge, again enlists in the Army, or in the militia when in the service of the United States, or in the Navy or Marine Corps of the United States, or in any foreign army, shall be deemed to have deserted the service of the United States; and, where enlistment is in one of the forces of the United States mentioned above, to have fraudulently enlisted therein.

FRAUDULENT ENLISTMENT.

ART. 54. Any person who shall procure himself to be enlisted in the military service of the United States by means of willful misrepresentation or concealment as to his qualifications for enlistment, and shall receive pay or allowances under such enlistment, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

OFFICER MAKING UNLAWFUL ENLISTMENT

ART. 55. Any officer who knowingly enlists or musters into the military service any person whose enlistment or muster in is prohibited by law, regulation, or orders shall be dismissed from the service or suffer such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

MUSTER ROLLS--FALSE MUSTER.

ART. 56. At every muster of a regiment, troop, battery, or company the commanding officer thereof shall give to the mustering officer certificates, signed by himself, stating how long absent officers have been absent and the reasons of their absence. And the commanding officer of every troop, battery, or company shall give like certificates, stating how long absent noncommissioned officers and private soldiers have been absent and the reasons of their absence. Such reasons and time of absence shall be inserted in the muster rolls opposite the names of the respective absent officers and soldiers, and the certificates, together with the muster rolls, shall be transmitted by the mustering officer to the Department of War as speedily as the distance of the place and muster will admit. Any officer who knowingly makes a false muster of man or animal, or who signs or directs or allows the signing of any muster roll knowing the same to contain false muster or false statement as to the absence or pay of an officer or soldier, or who wrongfully takes money or other consideration on mustering in a regiment, company, or other organization, or on signing muster rolls, or who knowingly musters as an officer or soldier a person who is not such officer or soldier, shall be dismissed from the service and suffer such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

FALSE RETURNS--OMISSION TO RENDER RETURNS.

ART. 57. Every officer commanding a regiment, an independent troop, battery, or company, or a garrison shall, in the beginning of every month, transmit, through the proper channels, to the War Department an exact return of the same, specifying the names of the officers then absent from their posts, with the reasons for and the time of their absence. Every officer whose duty it is to render to the War Department or other superior authority a return of the state of the troops under his command, or of the arms, ammunition, clothing, funds, or other property thereunto belonging, who knowingly makes a false return thereof shall be dismissed from the service and suffer such other punishment as a court-martial may direct. And any officer who, through neglect or design, omits to render such return shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

DESERTION.

ART. 58. Any person subject to military law who deserts or attempts to desert the service of the United States shall, if the offense be committed in time of war, suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, and, if the offense be committed at any other time, any punishment, excepting death, that a court-martial may direct.

ADVISING OR AIDING ANOTHER TO DESERT.

ART. 59. Any person subject to military law who advises or persuades or knowingly a.s.sists another to desert the service of the United States shall, if the offense be committed in time of war, suffer death, or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct, and if the offense be committed at any other time any punishment, excepting death, that a court-martial may direct.

ENTERTAINING A DESERTER.

ART. 60. Any officer who, after having discovered that a soldier in his command is a deserter from the military or naval service or from the Marine Corps, retains such deserter in his command without informing superior authority or the commander of the organization to which the deserter belongs, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

ABSENCE WITHOUT LEAVE.

ART. 61. Any person subject to military law who fails to repair at the fixed time to the properly appointed place of duty, or goes from the same without proper leave, or absents himself from his command, guard, quarters, station or camp without proper leave, shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

DISRESPECT TOWARD THE PRESIDENT, VICE PRESIDENT, CONGRESS, SECRETARY OF WAR, GOVERNORS, LEGISLATURES.

ART. 62. Any officer who uses contemptuous or disrespectful words against the President, Vice President, the Congress of the United States, the Secretary of War, or the governor or legislature of any State, Territory, or other possession of the United States in which he is quartered shall be dismissed from the service or suffer such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

Any other person subject to military law who so offends shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

DISRESPECT TOWARD SUPERIOR OFFICERS.

ART. 63. Any person subject to military law who behaves himself with disrespect toward his superior officer shall be punished as a court-martial may direct.

a.s.sAULTING OR WILLFULLY DISOBEYING SUPERIOR OFFICER.

ART. 64. Any person subject to military law who, on any pretense whatsoever, strikes his superior officer or draws or lifts up any weapon or offers any violence against him, being in the execution of his office, or willfully disobeys any lawful command of his superior officer, shall suffer death or such other punishment as a court-martial may direct.

INSUBORDINATE CONDUCT TOWARD NONCOMMISSIONED OFFICER.