How to Fill Out and Sign AF Form 618: Five-Day Window and IMR

AF Form 618, the Medical Board Report, is the document Air Force Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) officers use to record whether your medical conditions meet retention standards for continued service. You do not fill it out yourself. Medical officers complete it after reviewing your full case file, and your Physical Evaluation Board Liaison Officer (PEBLO) then briefs you on what the board found.¹ What you sign, and what you do in the days after that briefing, shapes everything that follows.

What the Board Records on the Form

The MEB documents its findings on AF Form 618 after evaluating your entire case file.² For each condition that could affect your ability to serve, the form captures a definitive diagnosis and states whether it was incurred in the line of duty. Line-of-duty status turns on whether the condition arose during a period of service and was not caused by intentional misconduct, willful neglect, or unauthorized absence.³

The findings section carries the board’s recommendation on whether you meet retention standards. In the remarks area, the medical officers explain how each diagnosis limits your job performance: severity of symptoms, functional impact on daily military duties, and likelihood of improvement. Those descriptions need to be specific. Under DoDI 1332.18, exam findings and lab results alone are not enough for a condition to be rated as unfitting. The board must connect the medical evidence to a real impact on your ability to perform.⁴

Alongside the form itself, the case file includes a narrative summary signed by the senior attending physician (a chronological history pulling in clinical notes, specialist consultations, labs, and imaging from both military and civilian providers), a Commander’s Impact Statement on DAF Form 1185 describing how your condition affects your duties and deployability, and results from the VA compensation and pension exams that run in parallel with the MEB.² Read all of it before you make any decision on the form.

Your Five-Day Window After the Briefing

Your PEBLO briefs you on the board’s findings once the form is complete. You may bring someone of your choosing to that briefing. Signing AF Form 618 means you were notified of the findings, not that you agree with them. Even if you refuse to sign, your case still moves forward to the Physical Disability Division at AFPC.¹

From the briefing date, you have five days to pick one of three paths:¹

Accept the findings and take no further action. Your case moves to the Informal Physical Evaluation Board (IPEB) as-is.
Submit a rebuttal letter within five days disagreeing with the narrative summary or the MEB recommendation, or presenting additional circumstances. Your PEBLO forwards the rebuttal and the MEB’s response to AFPC together.
Request an Impartial Medical Review (IMR). You can still submit a rebuttal letter after the IMR is complete.

Read the narrative summary carefully. Check whether every condition you have been treated for appears on the form, whether the line-of-duty determinations are correct, and whether the functional-impact language matches what your actual duties look like. Vague or thin descriptions in the remarks section often become problems at the IPEB, because that board relies on the MEB’s written record to decide whether a condition is unfitting.

Requesting an Impartial Medical Review

You can request an IMR whether the MEB recommends you fit or unfit.¹ The MTF Commander or Medical Director selects a physician who was not part of your board process. If your primary care manager wrote the narrative summary, that person cannot serve as the impartial reviewer.

The reviewer has five calendar days to complete the review, then contacts you to discuss the findings before submitting them in writing to your PEBLO. If you still disagree after the IMR, you get another five calendar days to submit a rebuttal letter. The IMR findings, your rebuttal, and the MEB convening authority’s response all travel with the package forwarded to AFPC.¹

An IMR helps most when you believe the narrative summary mischaracterizes your condition or the board overlooked significant medical evidence. A different physician reading the same file sometimes catches gaps. If your disagreement is more about legal or procedural handling than medical accuracy, a rebuttal letter alone may do more work.

Getting Legal Help from the Office of Airmen’s Counsel

You can consult the Office of Airmen’s Counsel (OAC) at any point during the MEB phase. OAC attorneys represent airmen from the moment they enter the Integrated Disability Evaluation System through Formal PEB hearings and appeals.⁵ Reach them at DSN 665-0739 or (210) 565-0739.⁶

If your Form 618 briefing is on the calendar and you are unsure whether to write a rebuttal, call OAC before the five-day window starts running. An attorney can review your records, tell you whether the findings match the evidence, and help you draft the response.

Why the Findings Matter Later

Two entries on AF Form 618 carry consequences well beyond the MEB phase: the retention recommendation and the line-of-duty and combat-related determinations for each condition.

The retention recommendation moves your case toward one of two very different financial outcomes. If the PEB later rates your disability at 30 percent or higher under the VA rating schedule and the condition is permanent and stable, you qualify for disability retirement with ongoing retired pay.³ If the rating falls below 30 percent and you have fewer than 20 years of service, you are separated with a one-time severance payment instead.⁷ With 20 or more years of service, you qualify for retirement regardless of the disability percentage.⁸ Whether the MEB describes your condition as clearly interfering with your duties can drive whether the IPEB finds you unfit and how it rates you.

The line-of-duty and combat-related entries on the form feed into how your pay is taxed years later. Disability retirement pay for a combat-related injury (one resulting from armed conflict, extra-hazardous service, conditions simulating war, or an instrumentality of war) is excluded from taxable income.⁹ Combat-Related Special Compensation is also entirely tax-free.¹⁰ VA disability compensation is tax-free in every case. Regular military retirement pay and Concurrent Retirement and Disability Pay are taxed like ordinary retirement income.

One boundary worth knowing: a Formal PEB cannot change the VA’s disability rating codes or percentages. If you want to dispute a VA rating, the path is a rating reconsideration request filed directly with the VA.²

All of this points back to the same practical point. AF Form 618 is a short form built on a long record, and the language in the remarks section, the retention recommendation, and the line-of-duty findings will follow you. Read it closely, use your five days, and get OAC on the phone if something looks off.

1
Air Force Wounded Warrior (AFW2) Program. Integrated Disability Evaluation System
2
Department of the Air Force. DAFI 36-3212 – Physical Evaluation for Retention, Retirement and Separation
3
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1201 – Regulars and Members on Active Duty for More Than 30 Days
4
Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 1332.18 – Disability Evaluation System
5
U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. Office of Airmen’s Counsel Brochure
6
Joint Base Charleston. Facing an MEB? Call OAC!
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 1203 – Regulars and Members on Active Duty for More Than 30 Days
8
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Disability Retirement
9
Internal Revenue Service. Publication 525 – Taxable and Nontaxable Income
10
My Coast Guard News. Retirees: Dont Miss the Combat-Related Special Compensation Tax Benefit!