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Department of Defense form 285. Official designation: DD Form 285, Appointment of Military Postal Clerk, Unit Mail Clerk or Mail Orderly, June 1967. Purpose: Appointment of Military Postal Clerk, Unit Mail Clerk or Mail Orderly. Current edition not stated, status not stated.
Governing directive: not stated. Responsible office: not stated. The DD designation signals joint scope — all military departments, combatant commands and defense agencies draw on a single edition of the document.
The form reaches military personnel across the services, civilian employees of the Department, and the personnel and records specialists who receive it.
Timing of submission is fixed by not stated and by the implementing guidance of the submitting organization. What follows describes the blank document, not agency procedure.
The download set covers PDF. Document length is 2 pages with about 152 entry fields.
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
- Mark X if for all personal mail.
- Mark X if personal (except accountable).
- Mark X if official (all).
- Mark X if official (except accountable).
- Mark X if official pouches only.
- Mark X if other.
- Personal (all). Initial if applicable.
- Initial if official (except accountable).
- Initial if personal (except accountable).
- Initial if official pouches only.
- Initial if official (all).
- Specify and initial other.
- 1. Effective date.
- 2. Date revoked.
- 3. Name of appointee (last, first, middle initial).
- 4. Rank or grade.
- 6. Title of appointee.
- 7. Organization/activity.
- 8. A P O , M P O , or C O N U S installation.
- 9. Mail authorized to receive. Mark X if for all personal mail.
- Mark X if personal (except accountable).
- Mark X if official (all).
- Mark X if official (except accountable).
- Mark X if official pouches only.
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.
Edition in use: not stated. Because DD forms are revised at Department level and distributed to all services at once, an obsolete printing may not match the fields an office expects. The date is printed on the form face.
Guidance for specific entries sits on the form face and in not stated; the directive is authoritative where the two do not agree.
After completion, the copy goes to the office designated by not stated or by local procedure. Retention of a personal copy is ordinary practice and costs nothing.
Associated forms are traced by number within the series. Because the DD sequence is common to all military departments, no service qualifier is needed to identify a referenced form.
Some procedures pair a DD form with a service form. The two numbering systems are separate — service forms answer to a service proponent, DD forms to not stated or another Department office — and a matching number in each system means nothing.
Revision occurs when the prescribing directive is reissued, when the data collected changes, or when statutory notice language is amended. Verification of the edition date at download addresses all three.
Scope of this page: distribution of a published form and description of its contents. It offers no legal guidance and no assurance regarding any particular submission. Direct procedural questions to not stated, to the servicing personnel office, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 285?
- DD Form 285, Appointment of Military Postal Clerk, Unit Mail Clerk or Mail Orderly, June 1967
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?