Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 1870. First, know what you are filling: Nomination for Appointment to the United States Military Academy, US Naval Academy, US Air Force Academy. The document is titled DD Form 1870, Nomination for Appointment to the United States Service Academy, September 2005.
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
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.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.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 1 pages, with approximately 27 fields to complete.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
Go with the typed route whenever the choice is yours. Consider what happens after you submit: the copy gets scanned, forwarded and filed, and each pass costs handwriting some legibility. Block letters help if you are stuck with a pen.
What the form asks for
- Nomination for Appointment to: Press space bar to mark X in first box if U.S. Military Academy, second box if U.S. Naval Academy, third box if U.S. Air Force Academy.
- 1. Name of nominee (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no separators).
- 3. Social Security Number. Do not include dashes.
- 4. Domicile in constituency. a. Street (include apartment number).
- 4.b. City.
- 4.c. County.
- 4.d. State.
- 4.e. Zip code (9 digit).
- 5. Temporary address. a. Street (include apartment number).
- 5.b. City.
- 5.c. County.
- 5.d. State.
- 5.e. Zip code (9 digit).
- 6. Sex. Mark X in first box if male, second box if female.
- 7. Telephone number (include area code).
- 8. Congressional district and/or state.
- 9. Type of nomination. a. Vacancy. Mark X in order for first, second, third, fourth, or fifth.
- 9.b. Type of nomination. Mark X in first box if principal, second box if competitive, third box if alternate, and fourth box if competitive alternate.
- Alternate number (enter 1 through 9 if applicable).
- If alternate, enter name of principal nominee.
- If competitive alternate, enter name of principal nominee.
- 10. Remarks.
- 11. Nomination authority. a. Typed name (last, first, middle initial).
Submit the completed form through the channel not stated or your local guidance specifies. Save a copy for yourself before it leaves your hands, whether that means a scan, a photograph or a duplicate file.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
Watch out for one trap here. If your instructions cite a DA form as well, do not assume the numbers are connected. DA numbering belongs to the Army alone; DD numbering belongs to the Department and is administered by not stated or another Department office. The same number in each system means two unrelated forms, so read the prefix before you download.
Plan to repeat this step whenever the form comes up again. Revisions follow directive changes, changes in what data is collected, and updates to notice language. Since nobody notifies you, check not stated at download and you have covered it.
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 1870?
- DD Form 1870, Nomination for Appointment to the United States Service Academy, September 2005
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?