So what is DD Form 2266? The short answer: a Defense Department document, officially DD Form 2266, Hometown News Release Information, June 1995, used to Hometown News Release Information. Anything else you need follows from that.
Will you need a different form because of where you serve? No. DD forms are Department-wide instruments, and that scope is what separates them from service publications. One edition, all branches, defense agencies included.
Who decides this form exists? not stated owns it; not stated directs its use. If someone told you to file this, the authority traces back to those.
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. P A O code, first number
- 1. P A O code, second number
- 1. P A O code, third number
- Item 2. Social security number, for identification only. Enter first number.
- Social security number, second number.
- social security number, third number.
- Social security number, fourth number.
- Social security number, fifth number
- Social security number, sixth number
- Social security number, seventh number
- Social Security number, eighth number
- Social security number, ninth number
- For releasing public affairs office use only.
- 3. Branch of service. Press space bar to mark X in first box if Army, second box if Air Force, third box if Navy, fourth box if Marine Corps, or fifth box if Coast Guard.
- 4. Status. X first box if active, second box if Reserve, third box if National Guard, or fourth box if civilian.
- 5. Rank.
- 6. Pay grade.
- 7. First name, middle initial, last name.
- 8. Sex.
- 9. Event, for example: arrival, promoted to Sergeant, received commendation medal, etc. Citation needed.
- 10. Your living parents, stepparents, guardians, aunt, uncle, grandparents or adult siblings. Item 10 a 1. First name, middle initial, last name.
- 10.a.2. Relationship to you.
- 10 a 3. Address: number and street.
- 10.a.4. City.
Download the form
What can you download? The available set is PDF. How big is the job? The form runs 1 pages with roughly 73 fields to complete.
What is the difference between fillable and printable? A fillable pdf has real field boxes that accept typed text and hold it inside the file. A printable pdf is a flat blank with no fields at all, intended for a printer and a pen. Which one you have determines how you complete the form, so it is worth checking first.
Does typing matter? It does. Your completed form will probably be scanned, forwarded and filed, and typed text comes through each of those steps unchanged while handwriting degrades. If pen is your only option, block capitals give the receiving clerk a fighting chance.
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.
Why does the edition matter so much here? Because DD forms are revised centrally. When the Department reissues one, it reissues it for all branches simultaneously, and the field layout can shift. Compare the printed date against not stated before you type anything.
Can you leave fields blank? Not safely. A reviewer cannot tell a deliberate omission from a missed question, so mark inapplicable items N/A. And date fields? Match the format shown on the form — conventions differ, and misreading a date is easy.
Why read the Privacy Act Statement? Because it sits ahead of the personal data fields deliberately. It names the collection authority, the principal purpose, the routine uses of your data and the consequence of declining. Reading it afterward tells you nothing you can still act on.
What counts as a signature? Ink on a printed copy, or a credentialed digital signature — CAC-based, applied in software that supports it. What does not count? Your name typed into the signature box. That is a name. Then date the block, because an undated certification is a returned form.
What sends forms back most often? An obsolete edition, blank required boxes, handwriting illegible after scanning, dates in a format the form did not ask for, and certification without a signature or without a date.
Is the form its own instruction manual? Partly. The rest sits in not stated, which is also the authority where the two texts conflict.
Where does the completed form go? To the office named in not stated or in your organization's local procedure. Should you keep a copy? Always — a scan or a saved file costs nothing and spares you the whole exercise if the original disappears.
How do you find a form referenced inside this one? By its number alone. The DD sequence runs across the entire Department, so a number identifies exactly one document regardless of which service cited it.
Why do some instructions cite both a DA and a DD form? Because the procedure touches both systems, not because the forms are related. Service forms answer to a service proponent; DD forms answer to not stated or another Department office. The sequences were never aligned.
How often does a form like this change? Unpredictably — revision follows directive changes, altered collection requirements and updated notice language. What is the practical defence? Verifying not stated every time you download rather than trusting a saved copy.
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 2266?
- DD Form 2266, Hometown News Release Information, June 1995
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?