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The scope here is Department-wide. DD Form 4 — DD Form 4, Enlistment/Reenlistment Document - Armed Forces of the United States, October 2007 — exists to Enlistment/Reenlistment Document Armed Forces of the United States, and it applies across the services rather than inside one. That is what the DD prefix encodes: joint issue, single edition, every branch and defense agency working from identical paper.
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.
Use not stated, status not stated. Older printings circulate widely and lose their currency Department-wide the moment a new edition issues.
The set is PDF. Size: 4 pages, about 87 fields.
All formats are free. One operational note: save the file locally and open it in a desktop reader. Browser-embedded viewers drop field properties and lose typed data without warning.
What the form asks for
- 4. Place of enlistment/reenlistment (military installation, city, state).
- 5. Date of enlistment/reenlistment (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no separators).
- 6. Date of birth (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 7. Previous military service upon enlistment/reenlistment. a. Total active military service: years.
- 7.a. Total active military service: months.
- 7.a. Total active military service: days.
- 7.b. Total inactive military service: years.
- 7.b. Total inactive military service: months.
- 7.b. Total inactive military service: days.
- 8. I am enlisting in the United States: list branch of service.
- Number of years enlisted for.
- And number of weeks:
- Beginning in pay grade:
- Number of years considered active duty obligation.
- Number of weeks considered active duty obligation.
- Number of years to be served in reserve component.
- Number of weeks to be served in reserve component.
- Additional details are in section C and annexes:
- 8.a. Report to place shown in item 4 by: Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- Branch of service:
- For not less than: number of years.
- For not less than (number of weeks).
- 8.b. Remarks (if none, so state).
- 1. Name of enlistee/reenlistee (last, first, middle).
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.
Sequence matters. Identification precedes content, content precedes certification, because the lower half of a form is generally conditioned on the upper half.
Nothing stays blank. N/A on an inapplicable item, because an empty box is indistinguishable from a skipped question and the form returns for it. Dates follow the format printed beside the field, not local habit — a joint form is read by clerks in several services with different date conventions, and ambiguity is expensive.
Privacy Act Statement first, personal entries second. It names the authority for the collection, what the data is for, who else routinely sees it, and whether you have to answer at all.
Signature comes after everything else and must be a signature: pen, or a credentialed digital signature via Common Access Card. Typing does not qualify. Add the date at the same moment.
Final pass, against the standing defect list: superseded edition, empty mandatory fields, handwriting illegible after scanning, non-conforming dates, missing signature or date. For anything ambiguous in a specific field, the form's own instructions come first and not stated controls where the two differ.
Submit to the office named in not stated or in local instruction; retain a duplicate before it leaves. Joint routing often sends a DD form across organizational boundaries, and tracing one afterward is not a same-day matter.
Related forms are found by number alone. The DD sequence is one unified Department-wide series, so a cited number resolves to exactly one document with no branch qualifier needed.
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.
Revision follows directive changes, changed data requirements and amended notice language, unannounced. Verify not stated each time rather than trusting a saved copy — the cost of the check is seconds.
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 4?
- DD Form 4, Enlistment/Reenlistment Document - Armed Forces of the United States, October 2007
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?