The_Jazz, thanks for that information. I had a hunch you were recalling something in your line of work since I remembered that you deal with insurance liability. I came back to edit my post to remind you of those clauses, but you had already recalled them
There are, of course, some situations where even those exclusions shedding responsibility for previous said or unsaid statements don't completely dissolve the oral agreement.
I googled Eddie Slovik. According to an article written by one of the judges at his
court martial on AmericanHeritage.com, "he became the only American put to death for desertion since Lincoln was President" when he was put to death by firing squad.
Given that this was WW2 and that djtestudo's reference stretches all the way back to the Mexican-American war in 1848, I'm going to have to conclude that scout's point that "historically" our military routinely shoots deserters in front of their squad is myth--whether it be Hollywood or boot camp originated I have no idea. While technically these executions have occurred "on the battlefield," neither accounts are of the image presented by saying that our military drags soldiers around and shoots them in front of their buddies when they try to run away. In fact, both articles are clear in stating that far from historical practice, both scenarios were historical anomalies.