Short answer. Only where one of the parties is at the point of death. A military commander of a unit, who must be a commissioned officer, may solemnize marriages in articulo mortis between persons within the zone of military operation, and the parties may be civilians as well as members of the armed forces.

What the law says

A military commander of a unit, who is a commissioned officer, shall likewise have authority to solemnize marriages in articulo mortis between persons within the zone of military operation, whether members of the armed forces or civilians.

Family Code, Article 32 — Marriage in Articulo Mortis by a Military Commander. Read the full provision →

Four conditions, all of them required

Article 32 grants a real but tightly bounded authority, and every clause in it is a condition. The officiant must be a military commander of a unit and must be a commissioned officer — two requirements, not one, so a commissioned officer who commands nothing does not qualify and a non-commissioned officer in command does not either. The marriage must be in articulo mortis. And the parties must be within the zone of military operation. Miss any of the four and there is no authority to solemnize, which is a defect in the marriage itself rather than a formality.

Civilians are included, and that is deliberate

The article ends by saying the parties may be whether members of the armed forces or civilians. The provision is not a benefit of military service; it is a response to a place. In an area of operations the ordinary solemnizing officers may be gone, unreachable, or unable to move, and a dying civilian in that area has the same need as a dying soldier. So the commander's authority follows the zone rather than the uniform. What it does not do is follow the commander — outside the zone of military operation he has no more authority to solemnize a marriage than anyone else.

The license exemption comes from a different article

It is worth separating two questions that this scenario runs together. Article 32 answers who may solemnize. What excuses the marriage license is Article 27, which dispenses with the license where either or both parties are at the point of death and provides that the marriage remains valid even if the ailing party subsequently survives. So the absence of a license is lawful here only because the marriage is in articulo mortis, not because of where it took place. A combat zone by itself excuses nothing if nobody is dying.

What still has to be true

The essential requisites do not bend for circumstances. Under Article 2 both parties must have legal capacity and must give consent freely in the presence of the solemnizing officer, and under Article 3 there must be a ceremony where they appear and personally declare that they take each other as husband and wife before at least two witnesses of legal age. If you are examining such a marriage after the fact — usually because of a death benefit, a pension or an estate — the questions to ask are who solemnized it, in what capacity, where, and who witnessed it.

Related provisions

Note. Statute text quoted on this page is reproduced from the official enactment and is linked to the full provision. The explanation around it is general legal information from Vivas & Nobles Law Office, not legal advice. Whether it applies to your situation depends on facts only a lawyer reviewing them can assess.