Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 2710. First, know what you are filling: Prisoner Background Summary. The document is titled DD Form 2710, Prisoner Background Summary, March 2013.
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.
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.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
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 5 pages, with approximately 200 fields to complete.
Download the pdf first. After it opens, test a field with your cursor. Fillable means you type, tab to the next box, and save your work inside the file. Printable means the page is a flat blank, so print it and write your answers in ink.
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
- 3. Maiden name.
- 4. Nickname.
- 5. Aliases.
- 6. Age.
- 8. Sex. Press space bar to mark X in first box if male, second box if female.
- 8. Place of birth (city, county, state).
- 9. Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 10. Race. X if American Indian/Alaska native.
- X if Asian.
- X if black or African American.
- X if native Hawaiian or other Pacific islander.
- X if white.
- X if unknown (reviewer of form will mark if prisoner does not answer).
- 11. Ethnicity. X first box if Hispanic or Latino, second box if not Hispanic or Latino, or third box if unknown.
- 12. Nationality.
- 13. Religion.
- 14. Height.
- 15. Weight.
- 16. Identifying marks (scars, tattoos, etc.). X first box if no, second box if yes.
- 17. Hair color. X first box if auburn, second box if black, third box if blond, fourth box if brown, fifth box if gray, sixth box if red, seventh box if silver, eighth box if white, or ninth box if bald.
- 18. Eye color. X first box if black, second box if blue, third box if brown, fourth box if green, fifth box if gray, sixth box if hazel, or seventh box if violet.
- 19. Gang association: X first box if no, second box if yes.
- Gang name/location (City, state).
- 20. Cult/extremist association: X first box if no, second box if yes.
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.
Should you need a related form, look it up by its number. The DD sequence is Department-wide, which makes your search simple: no service qualifier, no branch-specific variant to track down.
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.
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.
Finally, understand the limits of what you have read. This page distributes a published Department of Defense form and describes how to fill it out. It does not give legal or procedural advice, and it cannot promise any outcome for your particular case. For that, contact not stated, your administrative office, or the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2710?
- DD Form 2710, Prisoner Background Summary, March 2013
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?