Every entry in the Defense records system exists because some decision needed a documented basis, and DD Form 2603 is one of those instruments: DD Form 2603, Officer Promotion Rate Comparisons, July 1998, created to Officer Promotion Rate Comparisons. 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a form, the replacement takes effect across every component simultaneously, so an older copy is not merely locally out of date — it is out of date in every office that might receive it.
The form is laid out top to bottom in a sequence that reflects how the record will be read, not merely how it was drawn. Identification comes first because everything below it is understood in relation to a named person, unit or transaction; substantive entries follow; certification closes the document because certification attests to what precedes it. Filling out of order tends to produce internal inconsistencies — an entry that made sense before the header was settled and does not afterward.
Before the first entry, compare the date printed on the form face with not stated. This is not bureaucratic fussiness. Editions change field numbering, and a receiving office working from the current layout may look for information where your copy does not put it. On a Department form the exposure is wider than usual: your record may be reviewed by an office in another service entirely, one with no reason to remember what the previous edition looked like.
For an ambiguous field, read the form's own instruction, then not stated, which controls.
Download the form
The set published here is PDF, covering 1 pages with roughly 64 fields.
Nothing here is charged for. Published Defense forms are public documents and distribution carries no fee, in any format. One caution about software: fill the form in a desktop pdf application rather than a browser tab. Browser-embedded viewers implement field behaviour inconsistently, and the failure mode is silent loss of everything you entered.
What the form asks for
- 1. Service.
- 2. Reporting period. a. From (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 2.b. To (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 3. Promotions. (1) To grade O-8. (a). Acquisition Corps. c. Total screened in zone.
- 3. (1) (a)d. Total number promoted in zone.
- 3. (1) (a)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (i) In zone.
- 3.(1)(a)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (ii) Below zone.
- 3.f. Remarks.
- 3.(1) To grade O-8. (b) Non-acquisition Equivalent/Line Officers. c. Total screened in zone.
- 3. (1) (b)d. Total number promoted in zone.
- 3. (1) (b)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (i) In zone.
- 3.(1)(b)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (ii) Below zone.
- 3.f. Remarks.
- 3.(1) To grade O-8. (c) Total Acquisition and Non-acquisition Equivalent/Line Officers. c. Total screened in zone.
- 3. (1) (c)d. Total number promoted in zone.
- 3. (1) (c)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (i) In zone.
- 3.(1)(c)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (ii) Below zone.
- 3.f. Remarks.
- 3. Promotions. (2) To grade O-7. (a). Acquisition Corps. c. Total screened in zone.
- 3. (2) (a)d. Total number promoted in zone.
- 3. (2) (a)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (i) In zone.
- 3.(2)(a)e. Percent promotion/selection rates. (ii) Below zone.
- 3.f. Remarks.
- 3.(2) To grade O-7. (b) Non-acquisition Equivalent/Line Officers. c. Total screened in zone.
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.
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.
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.
A word on what this page is. It distributes a published Department of Defense document and describes what the document contains and how it is completed. It is not the issuing authority, does not speak for one, and offers no legal advice; nothing written here determines whether a particular submission will be accepted, because that determination belongs entirely to the office receiving it. Questions of applicability, eligibility or procedure go to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2603?
- DD Form 2603, Officer Promotion Rate Comparisons, July 1998
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?