---
kind: "section"
citation: "38 U.S.C. § 1911"
title: "38"
title_heading: "Veterans’ Benefits"
number: "1911"
heading: "Forfeiture"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/38/1911"
units:
  - "Part II — General Benefits"
  - "Chapter 19 — Insurance"
  - "Subchapter I — National Service Life Insurance"
---

# §1911. Forfeiture


Any person guilty of mutiny, treason, spying, or desertion, or who, because of conscientious objections, refuses to perform service in the [Armed Forces](/usc/38/101.md?p=10) of the United States or refuses to wear the uniform of such force, shall forfeit all rights to National Service Life [Insurance](/usc/38/1901.md?p=1). No [insurance](/usc/38/1901.md?p=1) shall be payable for death inflicted as a lawful punishment for crime or for military or naval offense, except when inflicted by an enemy of the United States; but the cash surrender value, if any, of such [insurance](/usc/38/1901.md?p=1) on the date of such death shall be paid to the designated beneficiary, if living, or otherwise to the beneficiary or beneficiaries within the permitted class in accordance with the order specified in [section 1916(b) of this title](/usc/38/1916.md?p=b).


## Source credit

(Pub. L. 85–857, Sept. 2, 1958, 72 Stat. 1150, § 711; renumbered § 1911 and amended Pub. L. 102–83, § 5(a), (c)(1), Aug. 6, 1991, 105 Stat. 406.)

## Notes

### Editorial Notes

### Amendments

1991—Pub. L. 102–83 renumbered section 711 of this title as this section and substituted “1916(b)” for “716(b)”.