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Defense Department form, series DD, number 838. Full title: DD Form 838, Exercise of Criminal Jurisdiction by Foreign Tribunals over U.S. Personnel, September 1978. Function: Criminal Jurisdiction by Foreign Tribunals Over U.S. Personnel, Exercise of. 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.
The form reaches military personnel across the services, civilian employees of the Department, and the personnel and records specialists who receive it.
When the form is filed is a matter of not stated and local instruction. The description here covers the document itself and how to obtain a copy.
Formats offered: PDF. Length: 1 pages. Fillable field count: roughly 200.
Distribution centres on pdf. Two states exist: fillable, where field boxes accept keyboard input and retain it, and printable, a static blank produced for manual completion. Typed data reproduces cleanly across copies; handwritten data depends on the writer.
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
- Type of offense.
- Reporting office.
- Type of offense.
- Type of offense.
- Press this Reset button to clear the data from all fields.
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.
Verify the edition date against not stated before entry. Department-level revisions replace the blank across every service simultaneously, so an old copy in a desk drawer may no longer correspond to current field numbering.
Guidance for specific entries sits on the form face and in not stated; the directive is authoritative where the two do not agree.
The completed document moves to the office named in not stated or in local guidance. A retained copy is conventional practice.
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.
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.
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 838?
- DD Form 838, Exercise of Criminal Jurisdiction by Foreign Tribunals over U.S. Personnel, September 1978
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?