Dereliction of duty Dereliction of duty is a specific offense under United States Code Title 10 , 892 . Article 92 and applies to all branches of the US military . A service member who is derelict has willfully refused to perform his duties ( or follow a given order ) or has incapacitated himself in such a way that he " cannot " perform his duties . Such incapacitation includes the person falling asleep while on duty requiring wakefulness , his getting drunk or otherwise intoxicated and consequently being unable to perform his duties , shooting himself and thus being unable to perform any duty , or his vacating his post contrary to regulations . Article 92 also applies to service members whose acts or omissions rise to the level of criminally negligent behavior . The first such case charged occurred during World War II , when Army Air Force Lieutenant s William Sincock and Theodore Balides were court - martial ed for dereliction of duty when they mistakenly dropped bombs on Zürich , a city of Switzerland , which was a neutral country during that war . Both men were later acquitted . Details . In the U . S . Uniform Code of Military Justice ( UCMJ ) , dereliction of duty is addressed within the regulations governing the failure to obey an order or regulation . Punishment can include sanctions up to and including the death penalty ( in times of war ) . Outside of wartime , the maximum punishment allowed is a Dishonorable discharge , forfeiture of all pay and allowances , and confinement for 1 year ( 10 years for service members receiving special pay under 37 USC 310 ) . Proving Dereliction . In order to prosecute a service member under Article 92 , the government must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the service member knew ( or should have reasonably known ) his duties and that he was either , through neglect or culpable inefficiency ( i . e . , being inefficient without just cause ) , derelict in the performance of those duties . A duty is imposed in any one of the following ways : That the service member possessed actual knowledge of his duties may be proved via : Sentinel / Lookout . UCMJ Article 113 ( " Misbehavior of sentinel " ) includes components of behavior that are , in themselves , examples of dereliction of duty : Examples : Non - Judicial Punishment . Failure to Follow Instructions and Directives . Both a Staff Sergeant and an Airman First Class stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base had their pay reduced by $ 300 and $ 200 pay per month , respectively , for two months , when their actions resulted in a delayed launch and subsequent aircraft shutdown . They were found guilty of failing to follow Air Force Instruction 21 - 101 , Air Force Policy Directive 31 - 3 , and Technical Order 00 - 20 - 1 . They were also given 14 days extra duty and had a reprimand inserted into their files . Misuse of Government Property . An Airman First Class stationed at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base was reduced to Airman when she received non - judicial punishment for dereliction of duty . She was found to have charged over $ 700 on her Travel Card for personal uses . Example : Court - Martial . United States v . Allen Lawson 33 M . J . 946 . In August 1988 , Marine Lance Corporal Jason Rother died on a desert exercise at 29 Palms , California . First Lieutenant Allen Lawson was charged and convicted of dereliction of duty for disobeying orders ( to submit a roster of posted Marines and locations to his superior officer , Captain Edwards ) and for failing to post two subordinates as a pair ( as ordered by the battalion commander , Lieutenant Colonel Robeson ) .