You have arrived looking for DD Form 3045. Before you download, confirm this is the right document: Statement of Disposition of Military Remains. Full title: DD Form X634, Statement of Disposition of Military Remains, 20150129 draft.
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.
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.
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.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
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.
Do not skip past the Privacy Act Statement. It is placed ahead of the personal data fields on purpose: it explains under what authority you are being asked, what happens to the information, and what follows if you decline. Take the minute it costs.
Finish with the certification. Print the form and sign in ink, or apply a digital signature with your CAC if the receiving office accepts one. Do not type your name in the signature box and consider it done; that is a name, not a signature. Date the block immediately after signing.
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 Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
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 3 pages and about 31 entries.
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.
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
- 3. DCIPS Case number.
- 1. Name of deceased (last, first, middle initial).
- 4. Person Authorized to Direct Disposition (PADD). a. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. Service/grade of deceased.
- b. Relationship to deceased.
- c. Telephone number (include area code).
- d. Current residence address (street, apartment number, city, state and zip code).
- 5. Selection of Disposition Options. Option 1. Military assumes custody, transports to funeral home, interment in civilian cemetery. Initials.
- I understand the reimbursement for expenses incurred cannot exceed: (amount).
- Option 2. Military assumes custody, transports to funeral home, interment in government cemetery. Initials.
- I understand the reimbursement for expenses incurred cannot exceed: (amount).
- Option 3 - Military assumes custody, direct transportation to government cemetery. Initials.
- I understand the reimbursement for expenses incurred cannot exceed: (amount).
- Option 4 - Cremation. Initials.
- I understand the reimbursement for expenses incurred cannot exceed: (amount).
- (A) Amount for interment/entombment in a civilian cemetery.
- (A) Amount for interment/entombment in a government cemetery (Federal or state).
- Option 5. I desire to make all arrangements. Initials.
- Option 6 initials.
- I hereby relinquish my rights. New PADD (next person in hierarchy) is: Name and relationship.
- 6. Receiving funeral home (Name, address, telephone number).
- 7. Cemetery (or where final disposition of remains is effected) (Name, address, telephone number).
- 8. Casket selection (not applicable to options 4 or 5). Press space bar to mark X in first box if 18-GA steel with silver tone finish, second box if solid hardwood with walnut tone finish.
- 9. Urn selection (Option 4). X first box if solid bronze, second if solid walnut.
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.
If the form points you to another document, you can find it by number alone. DD numbering runs across the whole Department, so you do not need to work out which service issued it — one number, one form, everywhere.
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.
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 3045?
- DD Form X634, Statement of Disposition of Military Remains, 20150129 draft
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?