---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 1511"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "1511"
heading: "Return alive of person declared missing or dead"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/1511"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 76 — Missing Persons"
---

# §1511. Return alive of person declared missing or dead

- (a) **Pay and Allowances.—** Any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) (except for a [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) subsequently determined to have been absent without leave or a deserter) in a [missing status](/usc/10/1513.md?p=2) or declared dead under subchapter VII of [chapter 55](/usc/5/chptIII/sptD/ch55.md) of title 5 or [chapter 10](/usc/37/chch10.md) of title 37 or by a board appointed under this chapter who is found alive and returned to the control of the [United States](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-1) shall be paid for the full time of the absence of the [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) while given that status or declared dead under the law and regulations relating to the [pay](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-15) and allowances of [persons](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) returning from a [missing status](/usc/10/1513.md?p=2).
- (b) **Effect on Gratuities Paid as a Result of Status.—** [Subsection (a)](#a) shall not be interpreted to invalidate or otherwise affect the receipt by any [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) of a death gratuity or other payment from the [United States](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-1) on behalf of a [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) referred to in [subsection (a)](#a) before February 10, 1996.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 104–106, div. A, title V, § 569(b)(1), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 349; amended Pub. L. 107–107, div. A, title X, § 1048(c)(10), Dec. 28, 2001, 115 Stat. 1226.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

2001—Subsec. (b). Pub. L. 107–107 substituted “February 10, 1996” for “the date of the enactment of this chapter”.