---
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"
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/10/101.md?p=a-9) shall, upon the enlistment or appointment of a person in the [armed forces](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-4), require that the person specify in writing the person or persons, if any, other than that person’s [primary next of kin](/usc/10/1513.md?p=4) or [immediate family](/usc/10/1076d.md?p=f-1), to whom information on the whereabouts and status of the [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5) shall be provided if such whereabouts and status are investigated under [chapter 76](/usc/10/chstA-ptII-ch76.md) of this title. The Secretary shall periodically, and whenever the [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5) is deployed as part of a [contingency operation](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-13) or in other circumstances specified by the Secretary, require that such designation be reconfirmed, or modified, by the [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5).
- (b) The [Secretary concerned](/usc/10/101.md?p=a-9) shall, upon the request of a [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5), permit the [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5) to revise the person or persons specified by the [member](/usc/10/1408.md?p=a-5) 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.)