Iowa Code § 29B.96

This is the official text of Iowa Code § 29B.96, part of Iowa’s Code — part of the compiled statutory law of Iowa, published by the state as "Code." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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Misbehavior before the enemy.

Official statutory text

Any person subject to this code shall be punished as a court-martial may direct if the person, before or in the presence of the enemy, does any of the following:

(1) Runs away.

(2) Shamefully abandons, surrenders, or delivers up any command, unit, place, or military property which it is the person’s duty to defend.

(3) Through disobedience, neglect, or intentional misconduct endangers the safety of any such command, unit, place, or military property.

(4) Casts away the person’s arms or ammunition.

(5) Is guilty of cowardly conduct.

(6) Quits the person’s place of duty to plunder or pillage.

(7) Causes false alarms in any command, unit, or place under control of the armed forces of the United States or the state military forces.

(8) Willfully fails to do the person’s utmost to encounter, engage, capture, or destroy any enemy troops, combatants, vessels, aircraft, or any other thing, which it is the person’s duty so to encounter, engage, capture or destroy.

(9) Does not afford all practicable relief and assistance to any troops, combatants, vessels, or aircraft of the armed forces belonging to the United States or their allies, to the state, or to any other state, when engaged in battle.

[C66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §29B.96]2006 Acts, ch 1010, §27

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.