You need DD Form 453-1, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Travel Order. Its official title is DD Form 453-1, Travel Order, August 1984.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 1 pages and about 26 entries.
Take the pdf if you are unsure. Then check which kind you have: if the boxes highlight when you click them, you have a fillable pdf and can type straight into it, and your entries save with the file. If nothing highlights, you have a printable pdf — send it to a printer and use black ink.
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
- Payment of travel allowances is authorized pursuant to 10 U S C Section 847 and 28 U S C Section 18 21. You should travel from: enter location
- in sufficient time to arrive at: enter location, on the date and time specified. You will be paid fees and expenses for attendance at the specified hearing and travel directly to and from that place.
- You may travel by: press space bar to mark X if rail.
- Mark X if commercial or military aircraft.
- Mark X if by bus.
- Mark X if privately owned automobile.
- X first box if you have or second box if have not been given a Government Transportation Request.
- If you travel by private automobile, you will be reimbursed at the rate of 20 cents per mile or: enter other amount
- plus the cost of necessary parking fees, bridge, ferry and other highway tolls incurred while traveling under this travel order. The total reimbursement will be limited to the cost of travel by the usual mode of common carrier, including per diem. Receipts and ticket stubs will be required to support your claim for cost of transportation and subsistence for each item in excess of 15 dollars or: enter amount.
- Press space bar to mark X if: you will be traveling to a high cost area. The travel regulations designate certain cities as high cost areas. Because your attendance requires travel to one of these cities, you will be authorized an actual expense allowance instead of a per diem allowance. You will be reimbursed for the actual expenses incurred, not to exceed the maximum amount for the city involved. The expenses may include lodgings, meals, tips to waiters, bellboys, maids, porters, personal laundry, pressing and dry cleaning, local transportation including usual tips, between places of lodging and duty, and other necessary expenses.
- You must itemize your daily actual expenses on your claim and receipts for lodging and any items over 15 dollars or: enter amount, are required.
- Mark X if you will not be traveling to a high-cost area. Because you are not traveling to a high-cost area, you will be entitled to a per diem allowance to cover your expenses for lodging, meals, and incidentals.
- While traveling and attending the specified hearing within the continental United States, you will be authorized a per diem equal to the daily average you pay for lodging, plus 23 dollars or (enter amount) per day for meals and incidentals, rounded off to the next dollar.
- If the resulting amount is more than the maximum per diem allowable, which is 50 dollars or (enter amount), then you will be reimbursed only the maximum per diem authorized. You are required to state on your reimbursement claim that the per diem claimed is based on the average cost to you for lodging while on required travel within the continental United States during the period covered by the claim. Receipts are required for lodging. The per diem allowance for travel overseas is based on rates set by the Department of State or by the Department of Defense, and you will be reimbursed the amount specified for the particular overseas area involved.
- You are entitled to an attendance fee of 30 dollars or (enter amount) per day under 28 U S C section 18 21.
- Address any inquiries regarding this matter to: line 1.
- Address inquiries to, line 2.
- This is travel order number:
- Dated:
- Issued by headquarters:
- T D N Accounting Citation:
- Typed name of authenticating official.
- For the commander: typed name of approving official.
- Signature of approving official.
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.
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.
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 453-1?
- DD Form 453-1, Travel Order, August 1984
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?