What is DD Form 785? It is a Department of Defense form titled DD Form 785, Record of Disenrollment from Officer Candidate-Type Training, June 1968, and its job is straightforward: Officer Candidate-Type Training, Record of Disenrollment from. That single line covers most of what people want to know before they download it.
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.
Who is behind it? not stated maintains the form, and not stated is the publication that requires it. Those two names answer most questions about why you are being asked to submit anything at all.
Which edition should you have? not stated, listed as not stated. A copy dated otherwise is a copy worth replacing.
What the form asks for
- Section 3 - Reasons and circumstances for disenrollment.
- Date submitted.
- To: (Appropriate agency of the service concerned) (Include Zip Code).
- From: (Appropriate agency of the service concerned) (Include Zip Code).
- Section 1. Identification information on student at time disenrolled. 1. Last Name - first name - middle initial.
- 3. Branch of Armed Forces.
- 4. File or service number.
- 5. Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- 6.a. Birth date.
- 6.b. Birth place.
- 7. Sex.
- 2. Rate or grade.
- 8. Home of record address.
- 9. Other address.
- Section 2 - Program information applicable at time disenrolled. 10. Training station address.
- 11. Type of program (OCS, ROTC, Academy, NavCad, etc.)
- 12. Specific type of training (Supply, Pilot training, Bombardier, Infantry, Artillery, etc.).
- 13. Date entered program.
- 14. Date disenrolled.
- 15. Date scheduled for commission (If training had been completed successfully).
- Section 4 - Evaluation to be considered for future acceptability for other officer training. Press space bar to mark X in first box if highly recommended, second box if recommended as average candidate, third box if only if needs of service outweigh reasons for disenrollment, fourth box if recommended if physical defects corrected, or fifth box if not recommended.
- 6. X if other remarks apply.
- Remarks.
- Typed name and grade.
Download the form
What can you download? The available set is PDF. How big is the job? The form runs 1 pages with roughly 26 fields to complete.
Why do two kinds of pdf exist? Because two kinds of user exist. One completes the form on screen and forwards a file; the other prints a blank and fills it by hand. The fillable release has interactive boxes, the printable release is a static image of the same page.
Is handwriting acceptable? Yes, but it is the weaker choice. Scanning flattens pen strokes and reproduction blurs them, while typed characters survive the whole chain intact. Print in capitals if you are working from a paper blank.
Where do you start? At the top. Identification first, the substance of the entry second, certification last. Why that order? Because fields lower on the page often depend on data you established in the header, and filling out of sequence produces contradictions.
What is the first thing to check? The edition date on the face of the form. Does it read not stated? If not, the copy is superseded, and a superseded DD form is a real problem: Department-level revisions replace the blank for every service at once, so an old file on a shared drive is stale everywhere, not just in your office.
Which fields are required? Treat all of them as required, marking N/A where an item genuinely does not apply. What trips people on dates? Writing them in a familiar format instead of the one the form specifies.
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.
Is a typed name enough? No. The signature block takes an actual signature: pen on paper, or a digital signature applied with your Common Access Card where the receiving system accepts one. Add the date beside it before you close the file.
What goes wrong most? The same short list: old edition, empty fields, illegibility, wrong date format, missing signature or date.
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.
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.
What if DD Form 785 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.
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.
Is any of this advice? No. This page distributes a published Defense form and explains its contents, which is a different thing from telling you whether your circumstances qualify or whether a reviewer will accept your copy. Direct questions of eligibility, applicability and procedure to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 785?
- DD Form 785, Record of Disenrollment from Officer Candidate-Type Training, June 1968
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?