Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 1285. First, know what you are filling: Request For VA Compensation or Pension Information. The document is titled DD Form 1285, Request for V A Compensation or Pension Information, May 1976..
Next, check the edition. You want not stated, currently carried as not stated by the publisher. Then confirm the form applies to you — this is a Department of Defense form, so you use it whether you serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force or Coast Guard under Defense jurisdiction.
Then settle the schedule. You are working under not stated, with not stated responsible for the document, and your organization layers its own deadlines on that. Ask before you assume a date.
Last in this stage, choose your method: complete it on screen, or print the blank form and fill it out in pen. The sections below take each route step by step.
Start at the header. Complete your identification before anything else, then work through the main entries, then finish at the certification. Skipping around causes contradictions between the top of the form and the bottom.
Your first action is verification. Find the edition date on the form and match it against not stated. A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
If a particular field puzzles you, read the instructions printed on the form first, then go to not stated. When the two disagree, follow the directive.
Download the form
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 2 pages and about 26 entries.
Choose pdf as your default. Next, click inside a box. A fillable pdf responds by outlining the field and letting you type; the text stays in the document when you save it. A printable pdf does not respond, which tells you to print the page and complete it by hand.
Prefer typing over writing. Your form will likely be scanned and emailed onward, and typed text reproduces at every stage while pen strokes fade or blur. When you do write, print in capitals so the receiving clerk can read it.
Before you take the xfdl file, make sure you can open it. Install IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or an equivalent client first, because your pdf reader will refuse the file. Then download and complete it as normal.
Whichever you pick, you pay nothing — every format here is a free download. One last tip: open your pdf in a desktop reader rather than in a browser tab, because browser viewers sometimes drop the interactive fields you need.
What the form asks for
- Gross amount of retired pay.
- Last name, first name, middle initial.
- Address: street number, city, state and zip code.
- Service number.
- Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- Date of birth.
- Date of first entry into service.
- Retirement date.
- Retired grade.
- Service department.
- To: (name and address).
- Remarks (section 1).
- Date requested.
- Name and title of requesting officer.
- Signature of requesting officer.
- Section 2 - To be completed by VA. Press space bar to mark X in first box if above individual is not receiving compensation or pension, second box if individual is receiving compensation or pension, or third box if individual has applied for compensation or pension.
- If applicable, amount of compensation or pension (per month).
- Effective date.
- Claim number.
- V A office of jurisdiction.
- Remarks, section 2.
- Date V A completed.
- Name and title of V A official.
- Signature of V A official.
With the form finished, route it to the office named in not stated or in your organization's own instruction. Keep a copy first. People rarely regret having one and frequently regret not having one.
When DD Form 1285 references another form, search on the series and number. Because DD numbers are common to every military department, the number by itself identifies exactly one document.
Be careful when a procedure pairs this form with a service form. Read the prefix, not just the digits. Service forms answer to a service proponent, while DD forms answer to not stated or an equivalent Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Grabbing the wrong prefix gets you a form that has nothing to do with your task.
Come back and check the edition next time you need this form. Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the information collected changes, or when the required notice language is updated, and none of those events reaches you directly. Verifying not stated at the moment you download is the whole defence.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1285?
- DD Form 1285, Request for V A Compensation or Pension Information, May 1976.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?