Download the form
Defense Department form, series DD, number 3. Full title: Application for Gold Star Lapel Button. Function: Application for Gold Star Lapel Button. Edition in force: not stated. Publisher 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.
Users include uniformed members of any branch, DoD civilian employees, contractor personnel where authorized, and the administrative staff who process the completed record.
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 1 pages with about 30 entry fields.
All formats download free of charge. Pdf files open in any modern reader; interactive fields behave most predictably in a desktop application, less so in browser viewers.
What the form asks for
- AirForce
- Army
- CheckBox1
- CheckSub
- CoastGuard
- CurrentPage
- DateField1
- Draft
- Footer
- FormNumber_Date
- Frame
- MarineCorps
- Navy
- Page1
- PageCount
- Pages
- Sample
- SecessionNotice
- SignatureField1
- Text1
- Text2
- Text3
- Text4
- TextField1
Order of completion: identification block first, substantive entries second, certification and signature last. The blank is laid out in that sequence and the sequence is not arbitrary — later entries often depend on data established in the header.
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.
Signature is manual ink on printed copies and digital where the receiving system accepts it. A typed name in a signature field is a name, not a signature. Common Access Card credentials support digital signature in pdf where the form and the reader permit.
Privacy Act Statements accompany DoD forms that gather personal identifiers. Content of the statement: legal authority, principal purpose, routine uses, and the effect of declining to provide the information. It is printed on the form for that reason.
Errors seen most often involve edition mismatch, empty mandatory fields, illegibility after scanning, date formats inconsistent with the printed instruction, and unsigned or undated certification.
Field-level instructions appear on the form itself and in not stated. The directive is the controlling text.
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.
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.
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.
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 3?
- Application for Gold Star Lapel Button
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?