Start here if you have been told to submit DD Form 3049. First, know what you are filling: Advanced Restorative Art of Remains. The document is titled DD Form X638, Advanced Restorative Art of Remains, 20150129 draft.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Sign only after every other entry is complete. Use ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, in a reader that handles it — on an electronic one. A typed name satisfies neither method. Enter the date next to it before you close the file.
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 Look for a superseded edition, blank mandatory fields, illegible writing, dates in the wrong format, and an unsigned or undated certification.
For questions about a specific entry, check the form's own instructions, and if that does not settle it, open not stated. The directive controls where they differ.
Download the form
First, look at what you can download. The set covers PDF, the form runs 1 pages, and you will complete roughly 16 fields.
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.
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).
- 3. Mortuary number.
- 4. AFMES number.
- 5. DCIPS Case number.
- 6. Mortuary classification recommendation. X first box if viewable, second if viewable for identification, third if non-viewable (head wrap), or fourth if non-viewable (full body wrap).
- 7. Additional notes.
- 8. Potential for reclassification.
- 9. Procedure necessary for reclassification/dressing of remains.
- 10. PADD approval for advanced restorative art procedure. a. Proceed? X first box if yes, second if no.
- 1. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- b. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 11.a. Typed or printed name of witness.
- c. Typed or printed name of PADD.
- d. Relationship to deceased.
- e. Signature of PADD.
- b. Signature of witness.
With the form finished, route it to the office named in not stated or in your organization's own instruction. Keep a copy first. People rarely regret having one and frequently regret not having one.
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.
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 3049?
- DD Form X638, Advanced Restorative Art of 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?