---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 643"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "643"
heading: "Chaplains: discharge or retirement upon loss of professional qualifications"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/643"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 36 — Promotion, Separation, and Involuntary Retirement of Officers on the Active-Duty List"
  - "Subchapter V — Additional Provisions Relating to Promotion, Separation, and Retirement"
---

# §643. Chaplains: discharge or retirement upon loss of professional qualifications


Under regulations prescribed by the [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3) of Defense, a [commissioned officer](/usc/10/101.md?p=b-2) on the [active-duty list](/usc/10/101.md?p=b-13) of the Army, Navy, or Air Force who is appointed or designated as a chaplain may, if he fails to maintain the qualifications needed to perform his professional [function](/usc/10/467.md?p=1), be discharged or, if eligible for retirement, may be retired.


## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 96–513, title I, § 105, Dec. 12, 1980, 94 Stat. 2867.)

## Notes

### Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

### Effective Date

Section effective Sept. 15, 1981, but the authority to prescribe regulations under this section effective on Dec. 12, 1980, see section 701 of Pub. L. 96–513, set out as an Effective Date of 1980 Amendment note under section 101 of this title.