Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2168. First, know what you are filling: Application for Discharge of Member or Survivor of Member of Group Certified to Have Performed Active Duty with the Armed Forces of the U.S.. The document is titled DD Form 2168, Application for Discharge of Member or Survivor of Member, April 2010 (Corrected for OMB expiration and Army address).
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.
After that, turn to timing. The requirement comes from not stated; the form is maintained by not stated. Local implementing instructions fill in the dates, so check with the office that will receive your copy.
Before you download, pick your approach — editable file or printed page. What follows covers the formats first, then the entries, then what you do afterward.
Now fill it in. Work from the top of the page downward, and do not jump ahead — the identifying block comes first, the substance of your entry second, the certification last. Later boxes often depend on what you put at the top.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
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
Step one is picking the format. You have PDF to choose from, across 2 pages, with approximately 44 fields to complete.
You will not be charged for any of these; the whole set is free. Before you start entering data, save the file to your computer and open it there. Fields behave far more reliably in a desktop reader than in a browser preview.
What the form asks for
- Section 1. Group member data. 1.a. Member's name: last, first, middle, and maiden, if any.
- 1.b. Alias(es).
- 2. Social Security Number. Do not include dashes.
- 3. Date of birth: 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no spacers.
- 4.a. Present street address (include apartment number).
- 4.b. City.
- 4.c. County.
- 4.d. State.
- 4.e. ZIP code.
- Section 2 - Service group data to support claim. 5. Name of group served with.
- 6. Identification number.
- 7. Highest grade/rank/rating held.
- 8. Highest pay grade (or actual pay).
- 9. Entry into Service. a. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 9.b. Place (include city and state of military installation).
- 10.Actual military service before/after this service. a. Dates (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 10.b. Department(s).
- 11. Home of record at time of entry. a. Street address (include apartment number).
- 11b. City.
- 11c. County.
- 11d. State.
- 11e. ZIP code.
- 12. Grade/rank/rating at time of entry.
- 13. Military installation where ordered to report (include city and state).
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.
When DD Form 2168 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 2168?
- DD Form 2168, Application for Discharge of Member or Survivor of Member, April 2010 (Corrected for OMB expiration and Army address)
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?