Which document is this? DD Form 2257, official title DD Form 2257, Designation or Termination of Military Postal Clerk (M P C), Financial Postal Clerk (F P C), Custodian of Postal Effects (C O P E), Postal Finance Officer (P F O), May 2000.. What does it do? It exists to Designation/Termination MPC-FPC-COPE-PFO. Everything on this page builds on those two facts.
Is there a version specific to your service? No. A DD number is issued at Department level, which is the whole point of the prefix — every military department and defense agency works from one identical document. Looking for a branch variant wastes time you do not have.
Where does the requirement come from? From not stated, with not stated responsible for the document itself. Those are the names to cite if anyone asks under what authority you filed.
How current is this? Edition not stated, publisher status not stated. That is the version described throughout this page.
What the form asks for
- 1. To. (Use complete address.)
- 2. From. (Use complete address.)
- 3. The individual named below is designated: Press space bar to mark X in first box if military postal clerk (military), second box if financial postal clerk (civilian), third box if custodian of postal effects, or fourth box if postal finance officer.
- 4. Name (last, first, middle initial) (typed or printed).
- 5. Pay Grade.
- 6. Branch of Service.
- 7. Activity for which designated.
- 8. Acknowledgement. Signature of designee.
- 8. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 9.a. Typed or printed name of designating official (last, first, middle initial).
- 9.b. Pay grade.
- 9.c. Signature.
- 9.d. Duty title.
- Termination. 10. The above designation is terminated effective: (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day.)
- 11. Reason for termination. Explain in detail.
- 12.a. Typed or Printed Name of Terminating Official (last, first, middle initial).
- 12.b. Pay grade.
- 12.c. Signature.
- 12.d. Duty Title.
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
Download the form
What can you download? The available set is PDF. How big is the job? The form runs 1 pages with roughly 21 fields to complete.
Fillable or printable — which do you have? Click inside a box. If it accepts a cursor and typed text, the file is fillable and your entries save with it. If nothing happens, the pdf is flat, and the only way forward is printing it and writing on paper.
Should you type or write? Type, whenever the choice is yours. The reason is what happens after submission: the record gets copied and scanned, and every pass costs handwriting legibility that typed entries never lose.
Why will not the xfdl file open? Because it is not a pdf. Xfdl belongs to IBM Lotus Forms, long the Department's electronic form format, and it needs IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or an equivalent reader installed first.
Is there a charge? No — free, all formats. Where should you open the file? In a full pdf application on your own machine. Browser-embedded viewers handle field properties unpredictably.
Can you skip around the form? Better not to. The layout runs identification, then content, then certification, and entries near the bottom frequently take their meaning from what sits above them.
What if your copy is old? Replace it. Check the date printed on the form against not stated. Old blanks circulate for years in shared folders, and because a DD revision lands across the whole Department at once, the receiving office will be working from the new layout.
What if a specific field still puzzles you? Read the instructions printed on the form, then not stated. Which wins if they differ? The directive.
What happens after you finish? It routes to the office specified in not stated or in local guidance. And your own record? Save a duplicate first; nobody regrets having one.
What if DD Form 2257 points to another form? Search the series and number. Because the DD sequence is common to every military department, no branch qualifier is needed to land on the right file.
Do DA and DD numbers ever correspond? Never. DA numbering is Army-specific, administered by an Army proponent, while DD numbering is Department-wide under not stated or an equivalent Department office. Identical digits in the two systems mean two unrelated documents, which is why the prefix matters more than the number.
Why do editions change at all? Three reasons, mostly: the prescribing directive gets reissued, the information collected changes, or the required notice language is amended. Are you notified when it happens? No. Which is why confirming not stated at the moment you download is worth the few seconds.
Will your completed form be accepted? That is not a question this page can answer. What you have here is a published Department of Defense document, a description of it and instructions for filling it out. Nothing on the page is legal advice, and nothing here determines what any office does with a submission. Where do the remaining questions go? To not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2257?
- DD Form 2257, Designation or Termination of Military Postal Clerk (M P C), Financial Postal Clerk (F P C), Custodian of Postal Effects (C O P E), Postal Finance Officer (P F O), 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?