You need DD Form 3048, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Disposition of Organs Retained for Extended Examination. Its official title is DD Form X637, Disposition of Organs Retained for Extended Examination, 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.
Before you download, pick your approach — editable file or printed page. What follows covers the formats first, then the entries, then what you do afterward.
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.
Before your first entry, look at the corner of the page and compare the printed date with not stated. If they do not match, stop and download again. Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
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
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 1 pages and about 15 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.
Handle xfdl in two steps. First confirm you have IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible reader on your machine; ordinary pdf software will report the file as broken. Once the viewer is running, download and fill the form.
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. 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. I, the undersigned, understand that: specify organ(s) to be retained.
- Upon completion of extended examination: Do not notify. Medical examiner system may make disposition. Initials.
- Notify me when examination is complete so I may decide disposition. Initials.
- b. Date.
- 7.a. Typed or printed name of witness.
- c. Date.
- 6.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.
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.
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 3048?
- DD Form X637, Disposition of Organs Retained for Extended Examination, 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?