You need DD Form 2839, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Career Status Bonus Election. Its official title is DD Form 2839, Career Status Bonus (CSB) Election, April 2009.
Your second step is the edition, not stated, listed as not stated. Your third is scope. Because the number carries a DD prefix, you use the same blank as every other military department and defense agency; no service-specific version exists for you to hunt down.
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.
Last in this stage, choose your method: complete it on screen, or print the blank form and fill it out in pen. The sections below take each route step by step.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.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
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 3 pages, and you will complete roughly 48 fields.
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.
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.
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
- Section 1 - Personal identification. 1. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. Social security number (do not include dashes).
- 3. Rank/pay grade/branch of service.
- 4. Date of initial entry into military service (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no dividers).
- 5. Date for determination of active duty service completed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 6. Date of notification (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- Section 2. Determination of eligibility. 7. Press space bar to mark X in first box if eligible to elect Career Status Bonus, or second box if not eligible.
- If not eligible, give reason.
- 8. Date of determination (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 9. Service authenticating representative. a. Printed name (last, first, middle initial).
- b. Signature.
- Section 3 - Not eligible for Career Status Bonus. 10.a. Signature.
- b. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 11. Witness. a. Printed name (last, first, middle initial).
- b. Rank/pay grade.
- c. Position/duty title.
- d. Organization.
- e. Organizational address.
- f. Signature.
- g. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- Section 4 - Eligible and electing. 12.a. I elect to receive the CSB as follows: X first box if single lump sum payment of $30,000, second box if 2 annual payments of $15,000, third box if 3 annual payments of $10,000, fourth box if 4 annual payments of $7,500, or fifth box if 5 annual payments of $6,000.
- b. Signature.
- c. Date signed (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 13. Witness. a. Printed name (last, first, middle initial).
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.
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.
Do not archive this file and reuse it in a year. Forms are reissued as directives are revised, as data requirements shift, and as statutory notice text is amended. Your protection is simple: download fresh each time and confirm the edition date.
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 2839?
- DD Form 2839, Career Status Bonus (CSB) Election, April 2009
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?