You have arrived looking for DD Form 616. Before you download, confirm this is the right document: Report of Return of Absentee. Full title: DD Form 616, Report of Return of Absentee, December 1999.
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.
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.
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 Old copies circulate in shared drives for years, and a DD form is revised centrally for every service at once, so a superseded blank may not carry the fields your reviewer expects.
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 29 fields.
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.
What the form asks for
- 1. Distribution (same as DD form 553 at time of absence).
- Report control symbol.
- 2. Name of Absentee (last, first, middle initial).
- 3. Service.
- 4. Social Security Number. Do not include dashes.
- 5. Grade or Rate.
- 6. a. Former absentee status. Press space bar to mark X in first box if escaped or sentenced prisoner, second box if absentee, or third box if deserter (administrative).
- 6. b. Date/hour Absence Began (Four Digit Year, Two Digit Month, Two Digit Day).
- 6. c. Organization and installation from which absent.
- 7. Circumstances of absentee's return. a. Mode of return. X first box if apprehended, second box if surrendered.
- b. Authorities to whom absentee surrendered or by whom apprehended. X first box if military, second box if civil, third box if FBI, fourth box if DIS, or fifth box if other.
- 7.b.(5) Specify other authority.
- 7. c. Place of Initial Return.
- 7.d. Date/hour of initial return (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- e. Required action. X first box if return to military control, second box if retained by civil authorities, third box if civil charges, or fourth box if safekeeping.
- 7.f. Military organization and installation or civilian location.
- 7.g. Date returned to military control (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 8. Disposition of absentee. a. Action by military authorities. X first box if retained, second box if transferred, third box if technical arrest orders, or fourth box if guard.
- 8.b. To (Name of Command in charge of absentee).
- 8.c. Cost of transportation to be charged to individuals account.
- 9. Remarks (include location of Service, Pay and Health Records).
- 10. Authorizing Official. a. Typed Name (Last, first, middle initial).
- 10.b. Grade.
- 10.c. Title.
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.
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.
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.
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 616?
- DD Form 616, Report of Return of Absentee, December 1999
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?