Customs and Immigration Inspections

The CO or aircraft commander should facilitate any proper examination that it may be the duty of a customs officer or an immigration officer of the United States to make on board the ship or aircraft under his or her command. The CO should not permit a foreign customs officer or an immigration officer to make any examination whatsoever, except as hereinafter provided, on board the ship, aircraft, or boats under his or her command.

When a ship or aircraft of the Navy or a public vessel manned by naval personnel and operating under the direction of the Department of the Navy is carrying cargo for private commercial account, such cargo should be subject to the local customs regulations of the port, domestic or foreign, in which the ship or aircraft may be, and in all matters relating to such cargo, the procedure prescribed for private merchant vessels and aircraft should be followed. Govemmentowned stores or cargo in such ship or aircraft not landed nor intended to be landed nor in any manner trafficked in, are, by the established precedent of international courtesy, exempt from customs duties, but a declaration of such stores or cargo, when required by local customs regulations, should be made. COS should prevent, as far as possible, disputes with the local authorities in such cases, but should protect the ship or aircraft and the government-owned stores and cargo from any search or seizure.

Manner of Addressing Officers

Except as provided in the following paragraph, every officer in the naval service should be designated and addressed in official communications by the title of his or her grade preceding the name.

In oral official communications, officers will be addressed by their grade except that officers of the Medical Corps, the Dental Corps, and those officers of the Medical Service Corps and the Nurse Corps having doctoral degrees may be addressed as Doctor, and officers of the Chaplain Corps may be addressed as Chaplain. When addressing an officer whose grade includes a modifier, the modifier may be dropped.

Exercise of Authority

All persons in the naval service on active service, those on the Retired List with pay, and transferred members of the Fleet Reserve and the Fleet Marine Corps Reserve are at all times subject to naval authority. While on active service they may, if not on leave of absence except as noted as follows, on the sick list, taken into custody, under arrest, suspended from duty, in confinement, or otherwise incapable of discharging their duties, exercise authority over all persons who are subordinate to them.

A person in the naval service, although on leave, may exercise authority as follows: . When in a naval ship or aircraft and placed on

duty by the CO or aircraft commander . When in a ship or aircraft of the armed services

of the United States, other than a naval ship or aircraft, as the CO of naval personnel embarked, or when placed on duty by such officer l When senior officer at the scene of a riot or other

emergency, or when placed on duty by such officer

Authority Over Subordinates

All officers of the naval service of whatever designation or corps should have all the necessary authority for the performance of their duties and should be obeyed by all persons of whatever designation or corps who are, according to with these regulations and orders from competent authority, subordinate to them.

Delegation of Authority

The delegation of authority and the issuance of orders and instructions by a person in the naval service should not relieve such person from any imposed responsibility. He or she should make sure that the delegated authority is properly exercised and orders and instructions are properly executed.

Abuse of Authority

Persons in authority are forbidden to injure their subordinates by tyrannical or erratic conduct or by abusive language.

Contradictory and Conflicting Orders

If an enlisted person in the naval service receives an order that annuls, suspends, or modifies one received from another superior, that person should immediately represent the facts to the superior from whom the last order was received. If, after such representation, the superior from whom the last order was received should insist upon the execution of that order, it will be obeyed. The person receiving and executing such order should report the circumstances, as soon as possible, to the superior from whom the original order was received.

Authority of Officers Embarked as Passengers

The CO of a ship or aircraft, not a flagship, with a flag officer eligible for command at sea embarked as a passenger, will be subject to the orders of such flag officer. Other officers embarked as passengers, senior to the CO, will have no authority over the CO.

Officers embarked as passengers who are junior to the CO, or the CO of the transport unit of a ship of the Military Sealift Command (MSC), if not on the staff of an officer also embarked, may be assigned to duty when the needs of the service require it. The CO or the CO of the transport unit will be the judge of such necessity. Passengers thus assigned will have the same authority as though regularly attached to the ship.

Shore Patrol

When liberty is granted to any considerable number of persons, except in an area that can absorb them without danger of disturbance or disorder, the senior officer present will cause to be established, temporarily or permanently, in charge of an officer, a sufficient patrol of officers, petty officers, and noncommissioned officers to maintain order and suppress any unseemly conduct on the part of any person on liberty. The senior patrol officer should communicate with the chief of police or other local officials and make such arrangements as may be possible to aid the patrol in carrying out its duties properly. Such duties may include providing assistance to military personnel in relations with civil courts and police, arranging for release of service personnel from civil authorities to the parent command, and providing other services that favorably influence discipline and morale.

A patrol will not be landed in any foreign port without first obtaining the consent of the proper local

officials. Tact must be used in requesting permission, and, unless it is given willingly and cordially, the patrol will not be landed. If consent cannot be obtained, the size of liberty parties should be held to such limits as may be necessary to render disturbances unlikely.

Officers and enlisted personnel on patrol duty in a foreign country normally should not be armed. In the United States, officers and enlisted personnel may be armed as prescribed by the senior officer present.

No officer or enlisted person who is a member of the shore patrol or beach guard or is assigned in support thereof should partake of or indulge in any form of intoxicating beverage or other form of intoxicant while on duty, on post, or at other times prescribed by the senior patrol officer. The senior patrol officer should make sure the provisions of this paragraph are strictly observed and should report promptly in writing to the senior officer present all violations of these provisions that may come to his or her notice. All officers and enlisted personnel of the patrol should report to the senior patrol officer all violations of the provisions of this paragraph on the part of those under them.