Download the form
Treat DD Form 1972 as Department-level, which changes how you look for it. Title: DD Form 1972, Joint Tactical Air Strike Request, April 2003. Function: Joint Tactical Air Strike Request. Because the number carries DD rather than a service prefix, the same edition covers all military departments and the defense agencies at once. Nobody issues a Navy copy or an Air Force copy.
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.
Current edition is not stated, carried as not stated. Check that against any copy you already hold before doing anything else — Department-level revisions land everywhere simultaneously, so a stale file is stale across the whole Department.
Available: PDF, across 1 pages, roughly 90 fields. That is the whole scope of the download decision.
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.
Xfdl needs IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible client — a pdf reader will not open it. The format was the Defense standard for electronic forms across the Department for years, which is why it persists in DD distribution long after most users moved to pdf.
Free download, every format. Do not fill the form in a browser tab — browser pdf viewers handle interactive fields inconsistently and discard entries on close.
What the form asks for
- AAA/ADA.
- Remarks.
- Press space bar to mark X if sent.
- X if received.
- X if checked.
- At:
- 1. Unit called.
- This is.
- Request number.
- Sent: time.
- Sent by.
- Priority.
- 2. Preplanned: precedence.
- Immediate: priority.
- Received: time.
- Received by.
- 3. Target is/number of: persons in open.
- Persons dug in.
- Weapons/MG/RR/AT.
- Mortars, artillery.
- Rockets/missile.
- Armor.
- Vehicles.
- Buildings.
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.
Field-level questions go to the printed instructions, then to not stated, which is authoritative.
Route it where not stated or local procedure directs, and keep a copy first. On a Department form the receiving office is frequently outside your own chain — another service, a defense agency, a joint command — which makes recovering a lost original slower than it would be internally.
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.
Prefix before number. A DA citation and a DD citation in the same instruction point at separate systems — one Army, administered by an Army proponent, one Department-wide under not stated — and there is no correspondence between them at any number.
Editions change when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the data collected changes, or when notice language is amended. None of that reaches you. Checking not stated at download is the entire defence, and it is cheaper than repeating a submission.
This page publishes a Defense document and explains its contents. It does not advise, does not rule on applicability, and determines nothing about how a completed form will be treated. Direct such questions to not stated, to the servicing personnel office, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1972?
- DD Form 1972, Joint Tactical Air Strike Request, April 2003
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?