Fillable Military Forms

DD Form 2873 — DD Form 2873, Military Protective Order, July 2004

Military Protective Order (MPO)

You have arrived looking for DD Form 2873. Before you download, confirm this is the right document: Military Protective Order (MPO). Full title: DD Form 2873, Military Protective Order, July 2004.

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.

Then settle the schedule. You are working under not stated, with not stated responsible for the document, and your organization layers its own deadlines on that. Ask before you assume a date.

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.

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.

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.

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

Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 2 pages and about 47 entries.

All of it downloads free. When you are ready to work, do this: save the file locally, then open it in a full pdf application. Browsers often ignore field properties, and you can lose everything you typed.

What the form asks for

  • 1. Service member. a. Rank.
  • 1.b. Last name.
  • First name.
  • Middle initial.
  • 1.e. Unit.
  • 1.g. Installation.
  • 2. Protected person. a. Rank.
  • 2.b. Last name.
  • First name.
  • Middle initial.
  • 2.e. Unit.
  • 2.g. Installation.
  • 3. Information supporting issuance of this military protective order.
  • 4. Court orders. a. Mark X if civil protection order.
  • 4.a. Issue date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
  • Name of court.
  • Name of county.
  • State.
  • 4. b. Mark X if other court order.
  • 4.b. Issue date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
  • Name of court.
  • Name of county.
  • State.
  • Mark X if property settlement.

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.

When DD Form 2873 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.

One thing this page does not do: tell you whether your submission will be accepted. We publish the document and explain how to complete it, and that is where our role ends. Nothing here is legal advice. Take questions about eligibility, applicability or procedure to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office named in not stated.

Questions and answers

What is DD Form 2873?
DD Form 2873, Military Protective Order, July 2004
Which edition is current?
Not stated by the publisher
Who is responsible for this form?
Not stated
In which formats can it be downloaded?
PDF

Other forms in the series