Every entry on DA Form 2339 exists because a record system needs it in writing. The form's official title is APPLICATION FOR VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT, and it is raised whenever an office must application for voluntary retirement in a way that survives the departure of everyone involved. Memory does not transfer between assignments; a filed document does. The edition dated 06/01/2021, status ACTIVE, is what stands here, spread across 2 page(s) and about 200 fields — a count that reflects how much detail the receiving system requires, not how much the drafter wishes to give. A later edition has since been published, which is why this one remains: records executed against it must still be readable in the terms they were written.
The form has an author and an occasion, held by different authorities. G-1 owns the content and reshapes it when what is being recorded changes. AR 635-200 governs the event that calls for the form and the route the finished document takes afterwards. Keeping those two apart is what allows a procedure to be amended without the page being rebuilt each time.
Identification precedes substance for a structural reason. Name, identification number, organisation and date of preparation are how the finished document is located in a file or a database; the body of the form is what someone reads after the search has succeeded. Spell the name as official records spell it, since the search runs against those records and not against habit.
Tab order is not a convenience feature; it was fixed when the form was built and generally traces the page, so following it produces the sequence the designer intended and leaves fewer gaps than a mouse. Exclusive option groups clear the previous selection because the record is not permitted to hold two contradictory answers. Single-line fields do not wrap for the same reason the layout is fixed: the printed page has to fall in known positions, so text past the field width is cut at the margin even though the screen still shows it whole. Overflow belongs in remarks or on a continuation, where there is room designed for it. And an inapplicable field is marked rather than skipped, since a blank tells a later reader nothing about whether the question was considered.
The signature is the point at which entries become an assertion someone stands behind, so it follows everything else and its absence leaves a draft. Countersignatures by reviewing, approving or witnessing officials each carry their own weight and are dated at signing, which is how the file preserves the order of responsibility. Seen that way, the familiar errors are not clerical trivia: an unanswered mandatory field, digits transposed in an identification number, day and month reversed, and residue from a reused file each put something false or unresolved into a document that will be relied upon.
Personal information may not be gathered silently, and the Privacy Act statement is how that obligation is met on paper: it names the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses and whether disclosure is mandatory. Because it exists to inform a decision, it belongs before the fields it covers rather than after them. A filled copy then holds personal data and is stored and transmitted under the corresponding safeguards.
Download the form
Why several files for one page? Because the form has to be completed in a headquarters and in places without a workstation, and PDF, XFDL covers both. The fillable pdf holds interactive fields that fix each entry in place and remove handwriting from the equation. The printable pdf is the same layout without those fields, meant for a printer and a pen. Neither is a lesser copy of the other; each answers a condition the other cannot.
Where a file opens matters more than it appears to. A browser will display a pdf, but browser viewers were built to read documents, and some accept keystrokes into fields they never intended to store — the entries are gone at tab close, without warning, because saving was never part of what that viewer does. A dedicated reader is built around the file's own structure and keeps what you enter. The xfdl file belongs to a different lineage entirely: IBM Lotus Forms, adopted across Army systems for the routing and signature handling built into it. That is why only the Lotus Forms Viewer reads it.
No charge and no account apply: these are published documents, and access to them is not something a distributor is entitled to price.
What the form asks for
- ACTLS
- ACTLSNO
- ACT_TO_DAY
- ACT_TO_DAY_1
- ACT_TO_DAY_2
- ACT_TO_DAY_3
- ACT_TO_DAY_4
- ACT_TO_DAY_5
- ACT_TO_DAY_6
- ACT_TO_DAY_7
- ACT_TO_MO
- ACT_TO_MO_1
- ACT_TO_MO_2
- ACT_TO_MO_3
- ACT_TO_MO_4
- ACT_TO_MO_5
- ACT_TO_MO_6
- ACT_TO_MO_7
- ACT_TO_YR
- ACT_TO_YR_1
- ACT_TO_YR_2
- ACT_TO_YR_3
- ACT_TO_YR_4
- ACT_TO_YR_5
Disposition is prescribed, not chosen. AR 635-200 names the destination, whether that is a specific office, the unit administrative channel or the personal record, and the applicable records schedule governs how long it survives there. Both rules exist to keep the file consistent across offices with different habits. Take your copy before the document leaves, since it will not come back.
Series and number are how the DA series signals which documents belong together, and the grouping follows real process boundaries: a shared proponent or directive usually means a shared purpose. A form cited on the face of another is part of that same transaction, and continuation sheets, covers and transmittals complete it.
Revision follows the process, which is why editions appear without a fixed interval, and the printed date rather than any version number identifies them. Nothing on a stored copy signals that it has aged; the check is manual. Work already completed under a superseded edition stands as filed, because the record was made under those terms and is properly interpreted under them.
A word on where this page sits. These are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents, made available by an independent site with no official role and no authority to issue forms. The structure described above — proponent, prescribing directive, records schedule — exists apart from this site entirely, which is why nothing written here is legal advice and why acceptance by any office is not something that can be promised. Put questions of entry, requirement or eligibility to G-1 or to the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2339?
- APPLICATION FOR VOLUNTARY RETIREMENT
- Which edition is current?
- 06/01/2021
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- REQUIRES PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT (AR 340-21),