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Department of Defense form 173-2A. Official designation: Joint Messageform (OCR Red Ink MPSA 8/82 Exception). Purpose: Joint Messageform (OCR Red Ink MPSA 8/82 Exception). Current edition not stated, status not stated.
Issued under not stated, with not stated as proponent. A DD number marks a Department-wide instrument: the same blank form serves every military department and the defense agencies, rather than one service alone.
Users include uniformed members of any branch, DoD civilian employees, contractor personnel where authorized, and the administrative staff who process the completed record.
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.
Available formats: none published here. The form runs unknown pages and contains approximately unknown fillable 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.
The xfdl release corresponds to IBM Lotus Forms. This format carried Department-wide form distribution for years and opens only in IBM Lotus Forms Viewer or a compatible client, not in a pdf reader.
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.
The document is filled from the top down. Identification precedes substance, substance precedes certification. Fields lower on the page are commonly keyed to entries made above them.
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 Superseded editions of DD forms are frequently rejected at the receiving office, since Department-wide forms change centrally and older layouts lose their field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.
Where a DA form is cited alongside a DD form, the two belong to different systems: DA numbering is Army-specific and administered by an Army proponent, while DD numbering is Defense-wide under not stated or an equivalent Department office. Numbers do not translate between the systems.
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.
The material here is descriptive. Nothing on the page constitutes legal or procedural advice, and no statement here determines whether a submitted form will be accepted. Such questions go to not stated, a servicing administrative office, or the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 173-2A?
- Joint Messageform (OCR Red Ink MPSA 8/82 Exception)
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- No file published here