Every entry in the Defense records system exists because some decision needed a documented basis, and DD Form 2329 is one of those instruments: DD Form 2329, Record of Trial by Summary Court-Martial, August 1984, created to Record of Trial by Summary Court-Martial. The reason it carries a DD number rather than a service designation is structural — the Department maintains a single body of forms for matters that arise identically in every service, so that a record created in one component remains intelligible in another.
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.
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a form, the replacement takes effect across every component simultaneously, so an older copy is not merely locally out of date — it is out of date in every office that might receive it.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.
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.
For an ambiguous field, read the form's own instruction, then not stated, which controls.
Download the form
What you can download: PDF. The form runs 2 pages and asks for approximately 78 entries. The plurality of formats is deliberate: Defense distribution has never been able to assume one operating environment across the whole force.
The difference between a fillable and a printable pdf is a difference in what the file contains. A fillable release carries an interactive layer: each box is a defined field with a name and a data type, and what you type is stored as data inside the document. A printable release has no such layer — it is an image of the page, and the only place your answers can go is onto paper. The distinction matters downstream, because a Department record often gets scanned and forwarded several times before it reaches its final file, and typed characters survive that chain in a way pen strokes do not.
What the form asks for
- 1. a. Name of accused (last, first, middle initial).
- 1. b. Grade or rank.
- 1. c. Unit or organization of accused.
- 1. d. Social security number.
- 2. a. Name of convening authority (last, first, middle initial).
- 2. b. Rank.
- 2. c. Position.
- 2. d. Organization of convening authority.
- 3. a. Name of summary court martial, if summary court martial was accuser, so state.
- 3. b. Rank.
- 3. c. Unit or organization of summary court martial.
- 4. At a preliminary proceeding held on: (day and month).
- Year.
- The summary court-martial gave the accused a copy of the charge sheet. Press space bar to mark X in first box if yes, second box if no.
- 5. The summary court-martial informed the accused of the following: a. The fact that the charge(s) had been referred to a summary court-martial and the date of referral. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- b. The identity of the convening authority. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- c. The name(s) of the accuser(s). X first box if yes, second box if no.
- d. The general nature of the charge(s). X first box if yes, second box if no.
- e. The accused's right to object to trial by summary court-martial. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- f. The accused's right to inspect the allied papers and immediately available personnel records. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- g. The names of the witnesses who could be called to testify and any documents or physical evidence which the summary court-martial expected to introduce into evidence. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- h. The accused's right to cross-examine witnesses and have the summary court-martial cross-examine on behalf of the accused. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- i. The accused's right to call witnesses and produce evidence with the assistance of the summary court-martial if necessary. X first box if yes, second box if no.
- j. That during the trial the summary court-martial would not consider any matters, including statements previously made by the accused to the summary court-martial, unless admitted in accordance with the Military Rules of Evidence. X first box if yes, second box if no.
Submission follows not stated and whatever local instruction supplements it. Make a copy before the original leaves. Department forms travel across organizational lines by design, and the administrative distance that makes them useful is the same distance that makes tracing a lost one difficult.
When DD Form 2329 cites another form, the citation is self-sufficient. The DD series is a single sequence administered at Department level, so the number resolves to exactly one document without any need to establish which component issued it — a convenience that exists only because the sequence was never allowed to fork.
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.
The role of this page is narrow and worth stating plainly. It makes a published Defense form available and explains its structure. It does not advise, does not interpret policy for your circumstances, and cannot indicate how any office will treat a completed copy — those judgments rest with the authorities that own the process. Direct such questions to not stated, to the administrative office that services you, or to the authority named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2329?
- DD Form 2329, Record of Trial by Summary Court-Martial, August 1984
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?