Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2278. First, know what you are filling: Application for Do It Yourself Move and Counseling Checklist. The document is titled DD Form 2278, Application for Do It Yourself Move and Counseling Checklist, September 1998.
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.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
Work through the fields one at a time and leave nothing blank. When a box does not apply to you, write N/A rather than skipping it, so the reviewer can see you read the question. Follow the date format printed beside each date field instead of the one you normally use.
When you reach a Privacy Act Statement, read it before you continue. It tells you the legal authority for collecting your information, what the Department does with it, who else may see it, and whether you have to answer at all. That last point is worth knowing before you supply personal identifiers, not after.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
Review before you submit. Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
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
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 2 pages and about 67 entries.
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
- 1. Date prepared (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 2. Shipment number.
- 3. Member or employee information. a. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 3. b. Rank/grade.
- 3. c. Social security number.
- 3. Agency.
- 4. This shipment/storage is required incident to the following orders: a. Type orders. Press space bar to mark X in first box if local, second box if permanent, or third box if temporary.
- 4. d. New duty assignment.
- 4. e. Orders number.
- 4. f. Number of miles.
- 4.b. Date of orders (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 4. c. Issued by.
- 4. g. Name of preparing office.
- 4. h.Paying (AFO/F&AO) Navy and Marine Corps.
- 5. Send check to (complete address).
- 6. State of legal residence.
- 7. b. Mark X if D I T Y move authorized.
- 7.b. DITY move authorized from:
- 7.b. DITY move authorized to:
- 7. c. Mark X if I T O and or T M O provided with accurate estimate weight of H H G s.
- 7. Entitlements. Mark X if: a. Option of G B L, van and or D I T Y move, nontemporary storage.
- 7. d. Mark X if maximum authorized weight.
- 7.d. Maximum authorized weight.
- 7. e. Mark X if unauthorized items, such as P O V, flammables, etc.
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 2278 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 2278?
- DD Form 2278, Application for Do It Yourself Move and Counseling Checklist, September 1998
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?