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Department of Defense form 1285. Official designation: DD Form 1285, Request for V A Compensation or Pension Information, May 1976.. Purpose: Request For VA Compensation or Pension Information. Current edition not stated, status not stated.
Prescribing authority: not stated. Proponent: not stated. Unlike service-specific publications, DD forms carry Department-level authority and apply across the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force and Coast Guard when operating under Defense jurisdiction.
Common users: service members regardless of branch, Defense civilian staff, and the offices that file, verify or retain the finished document.
Submission follows the schedule set by not stated and by local implementing procedures. This page provides the blank form for download and general orientation only.
The download set covers PDF. Document length is 2 pages with about 26 entry fields.
Pdf serves as the base format. In the fillable variant, each box is an interactive field that holds typed text inside the document. In the flat printable variant, no fields exist — the page prints as a blank to be completed by hand. Typed entries survive transmission; handwriting does not always survive scanning.
Xfdl is present in the set. The format belongs to IBM Lotus Forms — long the Defense standard for electronic forms — and needs the matching viewer; pdf applications will report the file as unreadable.
Every listed format is free to download. Modern pdf software handles the pdf files, with the caveat that browser-embedded viewers sometimes ignore field properties that a desktop reader honours.
What the form asks for
- Gross amount of retired pay.
- Last name, first name, middle initial.
- Address: street number, city, state and zip code.
- Service number.
- Social security number. Do not include dashes.
- Date of birth.
- Date of first entry into service.
- Retirement date.
- Retired grade.
- Service department.
- To: (name and address).
- Remarks (section 1).
- Date requested.
- Name and title of requesting officer.
- Signature of requesting officer.
- Section 2 - To be completed by VA. Press space bar to mark X in first box if above individual is not receiving compensation or pension, second box if individual is receiving compensation or pension, or third box if individual has applied for compensation or pension.
- If applicable, amount of compensation or pension (per month).
- Effective date.
- Claim number.
- V A office of jurisdiction.
- Remarks, section 2.
- Date V A completed.
- Name and title of V A official.
- Signature of V A official.
Completion runs in the order printed on the page: identifying data at the head, the body of the entry next, certification at the foot. Header data frequently governs what belongs in the fields below it.
The current edition is not stated. Superseded editions of DD forms are frequently rejected at the receiving office, since Department-wide forms change centrally and older layouts lose their field correspondence. Edition date appears in the lower corner of the printed blank.
Guidance for specific entries sits on the form face and in not stated; the directive is authoritative where the two do not agree.
Once executed, routing follows not stated and the submitting organization's own instruction. Keeping a copy is standard.
Cross-referenced forms are found through the numbering system. The DD sequence is Department-level and unified, which means a number cited on the page identifies one document across the whole Department.
A DD number and a DA number may appear in the same instruction without being related. DA forms belong to the Army alone; DD forms belong to the Department and are administered at Department level. The sequences are independent.
Forms are reissued for several reasons: directive revision, changed data requirements, updated notice language. Confirming not stated at the moment of download covers the risk.
This page distributes a published Department of Defense document and describes it. It is not a source of legal advice and makes no representation about acceptance of any completed form. Questions of applicability, eligibility or procedure belong to not stated, the servicing personnel office, or the office named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1285?
- DD Form 1285, Request for V A Compensation or Pension Information, May 1976.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?