42 U.S.C. § 217 — Use of Service in time of war or emergency

This is one undivided provision with three unlabeled parts. In time of war, or of an emergency the President proclaims, the President can use the Service to whatever extent and in whatever way will, in the President's judgment, promote the public interest. In time of war, or of an emergency involving national defense that the President proclaims, the President can also issue an executive order declaring the Service's commissioned corps to be a military service. Once that declaration is made, and for as long as the war or emergency (or whatever part of it the President specifies) lasts, the commissioned corps (a) becomes a branch of the United States' land and naval forces; (b) becomes subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, to whatever extent the President's regulations prescribe; and (c) keeps operating as part of the Service, except to whatever extent the President, as Commander in Chief, directs otherwise.