DD Form 2860 walkthrough: how to fill out the CRSC claim, section by section

Information verified through October 29, 2026.

The short answer. DD Form 2860 is the Claim for Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC). You submit pages 1 through 3 to the military department you retired from, and you must complete the entire form and sign Section VI. The form takes about 15 minutes to fill out by its own estimate. The part that decides your claim is not the blanks. It is the item 14.k narrative and the records you attach behind each condition. This walkthrough follows the form in order and flags the places where claims tend to go wrong.

Before you start: edition, pages, and where to send it

The version we reviewed is marked DD FORM 2860, AUG 2026, OMB No. 0704-0708, with an expiration of August 31, 2029. DoD’s forms page listed an August 12, 2026 edition date when we checked it on September 7. When we checked again today, the page text we retrieved still showed the old 2011 date, so we cannot confirm the posted date from that page alone. Look at the footer of the file you actually download, and if it does not read AUG 2026, find the current one before you fill anything in. Our DD Form 2860 help page tracks the edition question.

The instructions tell you to mail the claim to the uniformed service you retired from, with a clean legible copy of your supporting documents. Branch addresses are printed on the form. Our guide to applying for CRSC by branch and the pages for the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard cover the process.

Section I: personal information (items 1–7)

Items 1 through 7 cover your name, identifiers, and mailing address, and the form says they must be filled in so your department can determine eligibility. The AUG 2026 edition asks for your DoD ID Number, which the form says is on the back of the Common Access Card above the barcode. Use an address where you reliably receive mail, because requests for more evidence come back by mail.

Section II: preliminary requirements (item 8)

Item 8 asks four yes-or-no questions. Items 8.a and 8.b cover retired pay for regular or reserve service earned before January 1, 2008. Item 8.c covers Reserve TERA retirees with at least 15 but less than 20 years who reached age 60 before that date, and the form says to attach retirement orders or your Notification of Eligibility (the “15-year letter”) showing you retired under 10 U.S.C. § 12731a. Item 8.d asks whether you are currently entitled to military retired pay for any reason other than early reserve retirement for physical disabilities not incurred in line of duty (10 U.S.C. § 12731b).

The form states that if you answer NO to all of a through d, you are not eligible for CRSC. Most retirees answer YES to 8.d. If you retired under TERA or medically under Chapter 61, see our guides for TERA retirees and Chapter 61 medical retirees.

Section III: service history (items 9–12)

Item 9 asks which service you retired from; the form says to attach your retirement orders or “retirement” DD Form 214 and to mail the claim to that service. Item 10 is your occupational specialization. Item 11 asks whether you served in listed wars or operations, including Vietnam, the Gulf War, and Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation Enduring Freedom, and asks for a DD Form 214, award citation, or other evidence of combat service. If you check “Other,” the form says to explain where and when and provide evidence. Item 12 asks whether you were ever a prisoner of war. Our post on POW and detained-status CRSC explains why that answer matters.

Section IV: the disability block (items 13–14)

This is where the claim is made. The form says you must identify the disabilities you are claiming, and that you may copy the page for more of them. Item 13 is your VA file number if known. Item 14 then runs from a to n for each condition:

• 14.a–b: the title of the disability exactly as written on the VA rating decision, and the body part affected (for example, right knee).
• 14.c: whether the condition involves a presumptive condition. If yes, you enter a code (Agent Orange, ionizing radiation, mustard gas or lewisite, Persian Gulf War, or POW); otherwise answer None.
• 14.d–g: the VA diagnostic code if known, the date VA awarded it (YYYYMMDD), the initial VA rating, and the current rating. These dates feed your effective date, so take them from the decision letter, not memory. See the effective date per condition.
• 14.h: mark the code that best describes what caused the disability, using Appendix A. The codes include Purple Heart, direct result of armed conflict, simulating war, hazardous service, instrumentality of war, and the presumptive categories.
• 14.i–j: the unit and the location or area of assignment when you were injured.
• 14.k: in your own words, the events surrounding the disability and how they meet the combat-related guidelines.
• 14.l: whether you received a Purple Heart for this injury.
• 14.m–n: whether VA documented secondary disabilities, and up to four lines listing each with its code, description, rating, and date. Some cross-references printed in the form still say item 13, which is the older numbering.

Choosing the 14.h code

Appendix A defines each code, and each one turns on a definite, documented, causal relationship between the event and the disability. For armed conflict, the form says that being in a war zone or period of war is not enough by itself. For simulating war, it gives an example: being at a field exercise and tripping over a tree limb does not meet the guideline, because you must have been engaged in the training when injured. For instrumentality of war, the instrument must have caused the injury or malfunctioned while used for its intended purpose. Our guides on armed conflict, hazardous duty, training that simulates war, and instrumentality of war go deeper on each.

Writing the 14.k narrative

The box is small, but it is the closest thing to an argument you get to make. A useful 14.k answers who, what, where, and when, names the incident or training event, says what happened to the body, and points to the attached record that proves it. Keep it factual. Do not claim more than your records show. A useful structure: one sentence on the event, one on the injury, one on the earliest medical record, and one naming the attachments. If a single box cannot hold the story, say so and refer to an attached statement. Our guide to denials for insufficient evidence shows how thin narratives show up later.

Purple Heart and secondary conditions

The form’s own note at 14.l says proof of a Purple Heart award does not always allow a disability to be awarded as Purple Heart, and that your branch needs to know what the award was for; it suggests sending the initial medical report, the medevac report, and the DD Form 214. See our Purple Heart guide. For secondary conditions, the form says it cannot award a condition as secondary without evidence, and that VA must have granted it as secondary to the primary condition. Attach the VA rating decision that says so. If the primary disability is awarded as combat-related, the instructions say the secondary condition is conceded as combat-related absent evidence to the contrary. More in CRSC secondary conditions.

Section V: required documentation (item 15)

Item 15 lists the records the form says must be submitted with the claim, as copies only: all DD Form 214s and DD Form 215s; retirement orders and supporting documents; reserve retirement point computation and Notification of Eligibility where it applies; VA rating decisions, letters, and code sheets, current and prior; VA documents on Special Monthly Compensation or Individual Unemployability; medical records that verify how the injury occurred; Medical and Physical Evaluation Board results; and any other evidence that verifies the events. It says not to send EKGs, lab slips, CDs, diskettes, or other electronic media. The instructions add that a Physical Evaluation Board combat-related finding may be submitted as evidence, but additional objective evidence is still required.

Section VI: certification and waiver (item 16)

Item 16 is where you certify the claim and acknowledge the waiver. In plain terms, you acknowledge that if you are eligible for both Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay (CRDP) and CRSC you must choose one; that any retroactive payment is reduced by amounts already paid for the same period; that the information is true under penalties of perjury; and that payments go to the account of record for retired pay. The claim must be signed in ink, or digitally with a CAC. Other electronic signatures are not allowed. Because this section includes a waiver and a perjury certification, read it before you sign. Compare your options in CRSC versus CRDP and the CRSC calculator.

What this means for military retirees

The form is short, and that makes it easy to underestimate. Every blank filled in with the wrong edition, the wrong condition name, or an unsupported 14.h code creates a reason for your branch to ask for more or to decide on thin evidence. Nothing on the form guarantees eligibility, and approval is the military department’s decision, condition by condition.

What you should do now

1. Download the current edition and confirm the date in the footer.
2. Lay out your VA rating decisions and copy the exact condition titles, diagnostic codes, award dates, and ratings.
3. Pick one Appendix A code per condition and match it to a record that shows the event.
4. Draft each 14.k narrative in four plain sentences, then check every claim against an attachment.
5. Assemble copies in the order of item 15, then sign Section VI in ink or with your CAC.
6. Keep a full copy of what you send and note the date and method of mailing.

Document checklist

• DD-214 (and DD-215 if any) and retirement orders
• VA rating decision letters, code sheets, and the VA Blue Button report
• Service treatment records for the incident or training event
• Purple Heart citation with medevac and initial medical reports, if claiming that code
• VA decisions granting each secondary condition as secondary
• MEB/PEB results, line-of-duty determinations, and signed statements from people who were there

Frequently asked questions

The bottom line

DD Form 2860 asks for facts you can look up and a story you have to document. The fields that read like clerical blanks, the condition title, the dates, and the 14.h code, are the ones your branch checks against the VA decision. The narrative and attachments carry the combat-related argument. Take your time on those, use the current edition, and treat the form’s 15-minute estimate as the time to type, not the time to prepare.

Sources

• DoD Executive Services Directorate, DD Form 2860, Claim for Combat-Related Special Compensation (forms page)
• DD Form 2860 (AUG 2026), instructions, Sections I–VI and Appendix A (OMB No. 0704-0708)
• 10 U.S.C. § 1413a, Combat-related special compensation
• DoD 7000.14-R, Financial Management Regulation, Volume 7B, Chapter 63 (June 2024)

This article is provided for general educational purposes and is not legal advice, financial advice, or a guarantee of CRSC eligibility, approval, effective date, or payment amount. Rules, guidance, and implementation procedures can change. Veterans should verify current requirements with their military department, DFAS, the Department of Veterans Affairs, or an appropriately accredited representative.