Download the form
DD Form 108 is a Department of Defense form, not a service form: DD Form 108, Application for Retired Pay Benefits, July 2002., used to Application for Retired Pay Benefits. The DD prefix is the operative fact. It means one blank serves every military department — Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, Coast Guard under Defense jurisdiction — plus the defense agencies and combatant commands. No branch variant exists.
Authority: not stated prescribes it, not stated maintains it. Those two names settle most disputes about why the form is being asked for. Local commands add timing on top; the requirement itself comes from above them.
Edition not stated, status not stated. That comparison is the first thing worth making, because a DD form supersedes centrally and an old copy in a shared drive is out of date for every office, not just yours.
The set is PDF. Size: 2 pages, about 200 fields. Everything below refines that choice.
Take the fillable pdf unless you have a reason not to. Fillable means the boxes are real fields that accept typed text and retain it in the file. Printable means a flat blank — no fields, printer and pen only. The difference is not cosmetic: one produces a record that reproduces cleanly through scanning and forwarding, the other depends on penmanship.
What the form asks for
- 1. To
- 2. Date of Birth
- 3. Date retired pay to begin.
- 4. Highest military pay grade held
- 5. Applicant name: last, first, middle initial
- 6.a. Service number if applicable
- 6.b. Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- 7. Present home address: street, apartment number, city, state, zip code
- 7.b. home telephone number, area code only
- 7.b. Rest of home telephone number
- 8. Present assignment
- 9. Armed force and component before 1949, line 2
- 10. Grade or rating, line 2
- 11. a. approximate date of service from: day, line 2
- 11. a. approximate date of service from: month, line 2
- 11. a. approximate date of service from: year, line 2
- 11. b. approximate date of service to: day, line 2
- 11. b. approximate date of service to: month, line 2
- 11. b. approximate date of service to: year, line 2
- 12. a. active duty service from: day, line 2
- 12. a. active duty service from: month, line 2
- 12. a. active duty service from: year, line 2
- 12.b. active duty service to: day, line 2
- 12.b. active duty service to: month, line 2
Verify the edition before the first keystroke. The date on the form face should read not stated. If it does not, discard the file. Field numbering shifts between editions, and on a DD form the new layout reaches every receiving office in every service at once — there is no lag during which the old version is still normal somewhere.
Unclear entries — read the form face, then not stated; the directive prevails.
Send it as not stated or local guidance specifies. Save a copy. Cross-service and cross-agency routing is normal for Department forms, and a lost original outside your own organization is harder to chase down.
A number is a complete address in the DD series. Because the sequence is Department-level and not duplicated per service, there is nothing further to specify.
Where a procedure cites both a service form and a DD form, the two are unconnected. Service numbering answers to a service proponent, DD numbering to not stated or another Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Matching numbers mean nothing whatever.
Three drivers of revision: directive reissue, altered collection requirements, updated statutory notice text. No notification accompanies any of them, so download fresh and confirm not stated rather than reusing an archived file.
What is here is the blank form and a description of it. What is not here is legal guidance or any assurance about a particular filing — this page is not the issuing authority and does not speak for one. Those questions go to not stated, to your servicing administrative office, or to the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 108?
- DD Form 108, Application for Retired Pay Benefits, July 2002.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?