Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 1821. First, know what you are filling: Contractor Crewmember Record. The document is titled DD Form 1821, Contractor Crewmember Record, August 1996.
Your second step is the edition, not stated, listed as not stated. Your third is scope. Because the number carries a DD prefix, you use the same blank as every other military department and defense agency; no service-specific version exists for you to hunt down.
Once you know the form fits, find out when you file it. not stated sets the requirement, and not stated maintains the form itself. Your own command or agency adds local timing on top of that, so ask your administrative office if the deadline matters to you.
Finally, decide how you will complete it. You can type into a fillable file or print a blank and write by hand, and the rest of this page walks you through both paths in order.
Begin at the top and move down. Enter your identifying data first, then the body of the form, then the signature block. The sequence is printed in that order because entries below frequently follow from entries above.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
Look up an unclear item on the form face before anywhere else, then in not stated. Should the two texts conflict, the directive is the one you follow.
Download the form
Step one is picking the format. You have PDF to choose from, across 3 pages, with approximately 200 fields to complete.
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.
Type when you can. Printed entries stay legible after the form is scanned, copied and forwarded, and handwriting often does not survive that trip. If you must write by hand, use block capitals and press firmly.
What the form asks for
- Crew position. Press space bar to mark X if test.
- If test, position.
- X if support.
- X if functional.
- If functional, position.
- X if other.
- If other, specify.
- Press space bar to clear data from all fields.
- Name of crewmember (last, first, middle initial).
- Contractor represented (name and address).
- Mission, design and series aircraft or other requirement for this qualification.
- Base or location where qualification accomplished.
- X first box if initial qualification, second box if requalification.
- Flying time above type: Jet: hours.
- Turbo prop: hours.
- Reciprocating: hours.
- Rotary: hours.
- Total flying time.
- Mission design and series aircraft, line 1.
- Last 12 months: IP
- Last 12 months: 1st pilot, total.
- Last 12 months: WX
- Last 12 months: hood.
- Last 12 months: night.
Now that it is complete, send it where not stated or your local procedure says it goes. Before you do, make yourself a copy — scan it or save the file elsewhere. It costs you nothing and saves you the whole exercise if the original goes missing.
When DD Form 1821 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.
Here is where people go wrong. They see a number in an instruction and download whichever form matches it. But DA and DD are separate systems — Army-specific in one case, Department-wide under not stated in the other — so check which series you were sent to before you take the file.
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 1821?
- DD Form 1821, Contractor Crewmember Record, August 1996
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?