Manual for Noncommissioned Officers and Privates of Infantry of the Army of the United States, 1917 / To be used by Engineer companies (dismounted) and Coast Artillery companies for Infantry instruction and training

by United States. War Department

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.