§ Article 87 : Missing Movement; Jumping From Vessel Into the Water

Article 87 of the UCMJ (10 U.S.C. § 887) covers two distinct offenses: missing the movement of a ship, aircraft, or unit a person is required to move with, and wrongfully and intentionally jumping into the water from a vessel in use by the armed forces.

Who It Applies To

Missing movement: any person subject to the UCMJ who, through neglect or design, misses the movement of a ship, aircraft, or unit they are required in the course of duty to move with.

Jumping from vessel: any person subject to the UCMJ who wrongfully and intentionally jumps into the water from a vessel in use by the armed forces.

What It Covers

Missing movement

1. The accused was required in the course of duty to move with a ship, aircraft, or unit.
2. The accused knew of the prospective movement of the ship, aircraft, or unit.
3. The accused missed the movement through design or neglect.

Jumping from vessel into the water

1. The accused jumped from a vessel in use by the armed forces into the water.
2. The act was wrongful and intentional.

A “movement” means a move, transfer, or shift of a ship, aircraft, or unit involving a substantial distance and period of time. Practice marches of short duration that return to the starting point, and minor changes in location — such as shifting a ship to another berth in the same harbor or moving a unit to another barracks on the same post — are not movements for this purpose.

Maximum Punishment

Maximum authorized punishment.

• Missing movement through design: dishonorable discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 2 years.
• Missing movement through neglect: bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 1 year.
• Jumping from a vessel into the water: bad-conduct discharge, forfeiture of all pay and allowances, and confinement for 6 months.

Sentencing parameters.

• Missing movement through design: Category 2 (1–36 months). The maximum authorized confinement of 2 years is the recommended maximum.
• Missing movement through neglect: Category 1 (0–12 months).
• Jumping from a vessel into the water: Category 1 (0–12 months), with a recommended maximum of 6 months.

The newer sentencing rules apply, subject to the capital-case rules, when the accused is convicted only of offenses committed after 27 December 2023. See How UCMJ Sentencing Rules Apply. The maximum authorized punishment and the applicable sentencing framework do not predict the sentence in a particular case.

Related and Distinguished

Missing movement is distinguished from absence without leave (Article 86) by its focus on a specific required movement — a ship’s, aircraft’s, or unit’s deployment or relocation — rather than general presence at a place of duty. Jumping from vessel into the water is a distinct, unrelated offense grouped into the same article by statute; despite older secondary sources describing it as an enumerated Article 134 offense, it is codified directly as Article 87(b).

What the Provision Does

Article 87 contains two unrelated offenses: missing, through design or neglect, the movement of a ship, aircraft, or unit, and wrongfully and intentionally jumping into the water from a vessel in use by the armed forces. The maximum confinement ranges from 6 months to 2 years depending on the form.

History

Missing movement traces to the original 1950 Uniform Code of Military Justice, re-enacted in 1956. The jumping-from-vessel provision was added as a new subsection by the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (Pub. L. 114-328), effective January 1, 2019.

Sources

• 10 U.S.C. § 887 (Article 87, UCMJ)
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States, 2024 edition, Part IV, ¶ 11
• Manual for Courts-Martial, United States (2024 ed.), Appendix 12B and Appendix 12C