You need DD Form 3047, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Disposition of Remains Election Statement Notification of Subsequently Identified Partial Remains. Its official title is DD Form X636, Disposition of Remains Election Statement - Notification of Subsequently Identified Partial Remains, 20150129 draft.
Next, check the edition. You want not stated, currently carried as not stated by the publisher. Then confirm the form applies to you — this is a Department of Defense form, so you use it whether you serve in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force or Coast Guard under Defense jurisdiction.
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.
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.
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
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 1 pages, and you will complete roughly 24 fields.
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
- 1. Name of deceased (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. Service/grade of deceased.
- 3. DCIPS Case number.
- 4. Person Authorized to Direct Disposition (PADD). a. Name (last, first, middle initial).
- 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. Transferred for burial above original casket. Initials.
- Funeral home name and address.
- Option 2. Transferred to funeral home for cremation at government expense. Initials.
- Urn choice. X first box if solid bronze, second if solid walnut.
- Funeral home name and address.
- Option 3. Cremated and delivered. Initials.
- Urn choice. X first box if solid bronze, second if solid walnut.
- Deliver to: Name and address.
- Option 4. I authorize the appropriate Military Service to make disposition by burial at sea. Initials.
- Option 5. Armed Forces Medical Examiner System may retain for teaching/research and as a medical specimen. Initials.
- I do not want to be notified, and authorize the parent Service to make disposition. Initials.
- 6. In the event that further subsequent remains are identified: Notify, option 1. I would like to be notified and choose to accept individual portions for disposition. Initials.
- b. Date.
- 8.a. Typed or printed name of witness.
- c. Date.
- 7.a. Signature of PADD.
- b. Signature of witness.
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.
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.
Be careful when a procedure pairs this form with a service form. Read the prefix, not just the digits. Service forms answer to a service proponent, while DD forms answer to not stated or an equivalent Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Grabbing the wrong prefix gets you a form that has nothing to do with your task.
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 3047?
- DD Form X636, Disposition of Remains Election Statement - Notification of Subsequently Identified Partial 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?