---
kind: "section"
citation: "10 U.S.C. § 655"
title: "10"
title_heading: "Armed Forces"
number: "655"
heading: "Designation of persons having interest in status of a missing member"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/10/655"
units:
  - "Subtitle A — General Military Law"
  - "Part II — Personnel"
  - "Chapter 37 — General Service Requirements"
---

# §655. Designation of persons having interest in status of a missing member

- (a) The [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/2801.md?p=c-5) shall, upon the enlistment or appointment of a [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) in the [armed forces](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-4), require that the [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) specify in writing the [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) or [persons](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2), if any, other than that [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2)’s [primary next of kin](/usc/10/1513.md?p=4) or immediate family, to whom information on the whereabouts and status of the member shall be provided if such whereabouts and status are investigated under [chapter 76](/usc/10/chstA/ptII/ch76.md) of this title. The [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3) shall periodically, and whenever the member is deployed as part of a [contingency operation](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-13) or in other circumstances specified by the [Secretary](/usc/10/4951.md?p=3), require that such designation be reconfirmed, or modified, by the member.
- (b) The [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/2801.md?p=c-5) shall, upon the request of a member, permit the member to revise the [person](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) or [persons](/usc/10/2700.md?p=2) specified by the member under [subsection (a)](#a) at any time. Any such revision shall be in writing.

## Source credit

(Added Pub. L. 104–106, div. A, title V, § 569(d)(1), Feb. 10, 1996, 110 Stat. 352.)