You have arrived looking for DD Form 2812. Before you download, confirm this is the right document: Commander's Preliminary Assessment and Recommendation Regarding Missing Person. Full title: DD Form 2812, Commander's Preliminary Assessment and Recommendation Regarding Missing Person, November 1999..
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.
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.
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.
Check the edition before you type a word. The date appears on the face of the form; it should read not stated. When it does not, discard the file and take a fresh copy from this page. Department-level revisions replace the blank across all services simultaneously, which means an old printout can be out of step everywhere.
For questions about a specific entry, check the form's own instructions, and if that does not settle it, open not stated. The directive controls where they differ.
Download the form
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 1 pages, and you will complete roughly 17 fields.
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.
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.
Check your software before choosing xfdl. That format belongs to IBM Lotus Forms, long used for Defense form distribution, and it needs the matching viewer. Get the viewer installed, then come back for the file.
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
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
- Section 2 - Assessment of Circumstances. 8. Assess the circumstances of the loss and describe why you believe the person is missing (Provide additional rationale and any other information pertinent to this assessment as attachments.) See attachments: enter first attachment.
- Through: last attachment.
- Section 1 - Identity of missing person. 1. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- 3. Rank/grade/civilian.
- 4. Date information received regarding missing person's loss (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 5. Theater in which serving at time of loss.
- 6. Branch of armed service to which assigned, detailed, or attached.
- 7. Unit, facility, or area to or in which the person is assigned.
- 8. Assessment of circumstances of the loss.
- Section 3 - Recommendation. 9. Commander of unit, facility or area to or in which the missing person is assigned. a. Typed name (Last, First, Middle Initial).
- 9.b. Grade.
- 9.c. Unit.
- 9.d. Signature.
- 9.e. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
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 2812 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.
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.
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 2812?
- DD Form 2812, Commander's Preliminary Assessment and Recommendation Regarding Missing Person, November 1999.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?