Consider what a Department-level form is for. DD Form 2065 — DD Form 2065, Disposition of Remains - Reimbursable Basis, October 2003 — was established to Disposition of Remains-Reimbursable Basis, and it was placed in the DD sequence because the underlying transaction occurs throughout the Defense establishment in substantially the same shape. Standardizing the record was cheaper and more reliable than letting six services each design their own.
That decision has consequences you will notice. Because not stated prescribes the form for the Department as a whole, and not stated maintains it on the Department's behalf, the same blank passes between the Army, the Navy, the Air Force, the Marine Corps, the Space Force, the Coast Guard when operating under Defense jurisdiction, the defense agencies and the combatant commands without translation. A clerk in one component reads a record created in another and finds the fields where they expect them.
Current edition: not stated, status not stated. Understand why that date is worth attention here. When the Department reissues a form, the replacement takes effect across every component simultaneously, so an older copy is not merely locally out of date — it is out of date in every office that might receive it.
Work down the page in the printed order, and understand why the order exists. The identifying block establishes whose record this is and under what circumstances it arises. The body of the form then answers questions that are only meaningful once that context is fixed. The signature block comes last because a certification signed before the entries are complete certifies nothing.
Verify the printed edition against not stated first. Field structure shifts between editions, and the office that receives your record is reading the current one. That office may sit outside your service, which removes even the informal accommodation you might expect from a colleague who used the old version last month.
Where a specific field is genuinely unclear, the instructions printed on the form come first and not stated governs where the two do not agree.
Download the form
Formats available: PDF, across 1 pages and about 23 fields. That several formats coexist is a consequence of scale — the Department cannot standardize the software on every desk that needs this form, so it standardizes the document instead.
Fillable and printable are not two presentations of one file but two different objects. One holds your entries as structured data within the document; the other is a static picture meant to meet a pen. Since a DD form frequently moves outside the organization that created it, the durability of the entry matters more here than on a record that stays in one drawer. Typed text reproduces indefinitely; handwriting degrades at every copy.
Xfdl appears in the set for reasons of institutional inertia rather than preference. It is the IBM Lotus Forms format, once the Department's electronic forms standard and deployed widely enough that it outlived the decision to move on. IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or an equivalent client opens it; a pdf application will not.
All of it downloads without charge. Where care is needed is in the reader you choose. A fillable pdf depends on field properties that desktop applications honour and browser previews frequently ignore, so work locally rather than inside a browser window.
What the form asks for
- 1. To (Recipients and address for authorized distribution).
- 2. Name of Deceased (last, first, middle initial).
- 3. Relationship to sponsor.
- 4. Name of sponsor (Individual, Agency, or Firm).
- 5. Address of sponsor (Street, city, state and zip code).
- 6. Enter grade of sponsor
- 7. Enter social security number of sponsor
- 8. Press space bar to mark X if Option 1. I, the undersigned, desire that disposition of remains be effected as indicated below: a. Preparation of remains at the Government mortuary and return of remains to continental United States port of entry i n a transfer case.
- 8 a. Enter the cost of requested services and supplies. These services and supplies will be provided by the port mortuary. The person signing this form agrees he or she has remimbursed the Government in this amount. It is requested that the remains be shipped to the funeral home stipulated in the next field.
- 8b. Name of funeral home.
- 8c. Address of funeral home, including street, city, State and zip code.
- 9. Mark X if Option 2. a. Preparation of remains at the Government mortuary and return of remains to a continental United States port of entry in a transfer case. The port mortuary officer is requested to release the remains to the following funeral home.
- 9b. Name of funeral home.
- 9c. Address of funeral home, including street, city, State and zip code.
- 10. Mark X if Option 3 - Arrangements other than those described in Options 1 and 2.
- 10. Option 3. Describe other arrangements desired.
- 11. Relative of deceased (or other person) in Continental U S who may be contacted if necessary. a. Name: last name, first name, middle initial.
- 11b. Address: street, city, State, and zip code.
- 11.c. Relationship.
- 11.d. Telephone number, including area code.
- 11e. Date signed.
- 11.f. Signature of Sponsor.
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
Route the executed form as not stated or local guidance directs, and retain a duplicate first. Cross-component routing is ordinary for DD forms, which is precisely why a personal copy earns its keep: the receiving office may belong to an organization you have no standing to query about a missing document.
Cross-referenced documents are found by series and number, with nothing further required. That the DD sequence is unified across the Department means a cited number identifies one form and no other, which is the practical payoff of centralizing the numbering in the first place.
It helps to see the DA and DD sequences as what they are: separate registries with separate custodians. One serves a single service under a service proponent, the other serves the Department under not stated or an equivalent office, and neither was ever indexed against the other. A number that appears in both systems points to two unrelated documents, which is why reading the prefix comes before reading the digits.
Understanding why editions change explains why checking them is not optional. Revision follows directive reissue, changes in what data is required, and amendments to mandatory notice text — decisions made at Department level and communicated through publication rather than notification. The file you saved does not update itself, so the edition date at download is what you rely on.
What you have here is the document and a description of it, which is a different thing from guidance. This page is not an organ of the Department, gives no legal or procedural advice, and makes no representation about the outcome of any filing; the offices that administer the requirement are the only ones positioned to answer that. Applicability, eligibility and procedural questions belong to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2065?
- DD Form 2065, Disposition of Remains - Reimbursable Basis, October 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?