Consider what a Department-level form is for. DD Form 2273 — DD Form 2273, Irregularities in Makeup and Dispatch of Mail, May 2000. — was established to Irregularities in Makeup and Dispatch of Mail, 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.
This is why the arrangement matters to you rather than only to the archivists. not stated governs the form throughout the Department, with not stated as the responsible office, so the record you create is legible outside your own component. Joint assignments, agency details and cross-service transactions all depend on that: the paperwork does not have to be reconstructed each time it crosses a boundary.
The edition in force is not stated, carried by the publisher as not stated, and edition discipline is stricter on a Department form than most people expect, precisely because supersession happens everywhere at once. There is no interval during which one service still works from the previous layout while another has moved on.
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.
Check the edition date before you type anything, against not stated. Old blanks accumulate in shared drives for years, and the cost of one is not obvious until a reviewer cannot find a field. Because DD forms are revised centrally and replaced across the Department in a single action, there is no component still tolerating the old layout as a local practice.
Unclear entries are resolved from the printed instructions first and from not stated where the two texts diverge.
Download the form
Formats available: PDF, across 1 pages and about 40 fields.
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
- 8. Pouch/sack. Attach slide label. Press space bar to mark X if Wrong type.
- 8. Mark X if Unserviceable.
- 8. Mark X if Improperly sealed.
- 9. Facing slip. Attach with slide label. Mark X if Missing.
- 9. Mark X if Incorrect.
- 9. Mark X if Improperly prepared.
- 10. Letter ties. Attach slide label and facing slip. Mark X if Broken.
- 10. Mark X if Loose.
- 10. Mark X if Directs not made.
- 11. Pressure sensitive label. Attach slide label. Mark X if Missing.
- 11. Mark X if Incorrect.
- 12. Outside mail, PS Label 136. Mark X if Missing.
- 12. Mark X if Incorrect.
- 12. Mark X if Improperly prepared.
- 13. Coded tag. Attach slide label. Mark X if Missing.
- 13. Mark X if Incorrect.
- 13. Mark X if Improperly prepared.
- 13. Mark X if Altered.
- 14. Slide label. Attach. Mark X if Missing.
- 14. Mark X if Incorrect.
- 14. Mark X if Improperly prepared.
- 14. Mark X if Altered.
- 1. Date. 4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day, no dividers.
- 2. To: use complete address.
The completed form goes to the office named in not stated or in local implementing procedure, and it is worth keeping a copy before it goes. On a Department form the destination is frequently outside your own chain — another service, a defense agency, a joint staff — and recovering a document that has crossed an organizational boundary is a slower business than retrieving one from a file down the hall.
Forms referenced inside this one are located by number alone, and that simplicity is a direct product of Department-level numbering. Because the DD sequence is maintained centrally and not duplicated by service, a number is a complete address: one number, one document, throughout the Defense establishment.
Procedures that touch both Department and service processes will cite forms from both sequences, and the coincidence of numbers between them is exactly that — coincidence. An Army proponent maintains the DA series for the Army; not stated or another Department office maintains the DD series for the whole Department. Two independent registries, two independent numbering runs, no correspondence at any value.
Editions change for reasons that originate above the form itself. The prescribing directive is reissued and the form follows; the information the Department needs to collect changes and the fields change with it; the statutory notice language is amended and every form carrying that notice is republished. None of these events announces itself to the person who downloaded a copy last year, which is why confirming not stated at the moment of download is the only reliable check available to you.
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 2273?
- DD Form 2273, Irregularities in Makeup and Dispatch of Mail, May 2000.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?