How to Fill Out and Submit DD Form 818: Comment Matrix and Deadlines

To fill out DD Form 818, download the current August 2016 version from the Executive Services Directorate, enter your component’s identifying information and one of four coordination responses in the header, log each comment as its own row in the matrix with a category, page and paragraph reference, and specific recommended fix, and return the signed form through the DoD Issuances Portal before the suspense date. The form is the required vehicle for any DoD component responding to a proposed directive, instruction, or other issuance during formal coordination.

Get the Form and Gather Your Information

The current DD Form 818 is a Word document available from the DoD Forms Management Program page at esd.whs.mil.¹ The August 2016 edition replaced the older SD Form 818, which is obsolete.²

Before you open the file, pull together the issuance number, its full title exactly as it appears on the coordination request, your component’s official position, and the name, phone number, and email of the person who can defend your comments during adjudication.

Pick Your Coordination Response

The form requires one of four responses. DoD Instruction 5025.01 lists these as the only acceptable positions during formal coordination:³

Concur Without Comment. Your component agrees with the draft as written.
Concur With Comment. Your component agrees overall but wants specific changes.
Nonconcur With Comment. Your component formally objects, and the form must identify which comments are the grounds for the objection.
No Comment. Your component reviewed the draft, has no equity in it, and takes no position.

Nonconcurrence is not a general-purpose disagreement tool. The instruction limits it to draft issuances that violate law or Executive Branch policy, create an unnecessary risk to safety or life, waste or abuse appropriations, or impose an unreasonable burden on your component’s resources.³ If your concern falls short of that bar, use Concur With Comment.

Categorize Every Comment Correctly

Each comment you enter belongs to one of three categories, and the category determines how the drafting office treats it.

A critical comment is automatically treated as a nonconcurrence. Reserve this category for the same narrow grounds that justify nonconcurrence itself: legal violations, conflicts with senior DoD or Executive Branch policy, safety of life risks, waste of appropriations, or unreasonable resource burdens.⁴

A substantive comment flags information that is incorrect, misleading, confusing, or inconsistent, or expresses disagreement with proposed responsibilities, requirements, or procedures. You can nonconcur based on substantive comments, but you have to say clearly which of them drive the nonconcurrence.⁴

An administrative comment covers minor items: outdated reference dates, wrong organizational symbols, formatting problems, grammar. Administrative comments are not carried onto the consolidated DD Form 818-1 that goes forward with the package; the drafting office just makes the fixes directly in the document.⁴

Mislabeling matters in both directions. Tagging a substantive objection as administrative can bury it. Tagging a grammar fix as critical wastes adjudication time and weakens your credibility on the comments that actually count.

Complete the Header

The header identifies the response. Set the classification marking for the document as a whole; if everything is unclassified, mark the header and footer accordingly. Enter the date and the subject line, which should match the proposed issuance’s full title exactly. Add your component’s formal response statement to reflect the concurrence type you selected, and enter the coordinating official’s name, title, and component. That official signs the digital signature block at the bottom of the header. A missing or invalid signature from the wrong authority level can get the response rejected during screening.²

Complete the Comment Matrix

Each comment gets its own row. Do not combine issues.² Work across the columns:

CLASS. Classification of the individual comment. If any content is classified, follow DoDM 5200.01 marking guidance. For fully unclassified responses, leave this column alone and rely on the header and footer markings.
Number. Sequence your comments by the page and paragraph they address.
PAGE and PARA. Give the exact page and paragraph in the draft where the issue sits. Precision saves the drafting office from hunting.
Basis for Non-Concur. Check this box only on the specific rows that are grounds for your nonconcurrence. Leave it blank on everything else.
Comments, Justification, and Originator Justification for Resolution. State the issue, say why it matters, and recommend a specific change. The last portion is space the drafting office will use later to record its adjudication.
Component and POC. Enter your component and the name, phone, and email of the point of contact for that comment so the drafter can reach the right expert.

Specific and prescriptive comments carry weight. “Paragraph 3.2 is confusing” gives the drafter nothing to act on. A comment that names the conflict, cites the governing document, and proposes exact replacement language can be accepted on the spot.

Know Your Deadline

Coordination windows are set by issuance type in Table 3 of DoD Instruction 5025.01:³

New issuance or reissuance: 30 workdays
Substantive changes to an existing issuance: 20 workdays
Directive-Type Memorandum: 15 workdays
Cancellation: 10 workdays

These windows can be compressed for high-priority items designated by law, the President, the Secretary or Deputy Secretary of Defense, or a Principal Staff Assistant. In those cases the originating office and the Directives Division set an expedited schedule tied to a specific publication date.³ On an expedited window, start the form the day the coordination request arrives.

Submit the Form

For unclassified issuances, submit through the DoD Issuances Portal System. The instruction establishes the Portal as the official submission mechanism, and comments must be recorded on the DD Form 818 and posted there by the suspense date.³ Portal access requires a valid DoD public key infrastructure certificate and hardware token. The Portal emails a confirmation to the originating office when your response arrives.

Classified issuances do not go through the Portal. Submit those by email to the Directives Division’s classified mailbox. If your organization has no Portal access at all, return the completed DD Form 818 directly to the originating office by the suspense date, and that office forwards a copy to the Directives Division.³

If You Nonconcurred, Expect a Resolution Process

A nonconcurrence does not stop an issuance, but the originating office must attempt to resolve it before the package moves forward for legal sufficiency review.³ The process starts with the action officers on both sides talking directly, escalates to primary focal points if they cannot agree, and can reach the approving authority’s Chief of Staff and, if still unresolved, a Principal Staff Assistant or Presidential appointee.

When your objection is resolved, you have to formally withdraw it in writing on a signed DD Form 818, a signed memorandum, or a digitally signed email. The one exception is when the originating office accepts every comment that drove the nonconcurrence and puts them into the issuance; then no separate withdrawal is required.³ If it stays unresolved through all three escalation steps, both sides of the disagreement go into the action memorandum, and the approving authority decides whether to publish over the objection.

1
Washington Headquarters Services. DD 818 – DoD Issuance Coordination Response
2
Department of Defense. DD Form 818 DoD Issuance Coordination Response
3
Washington Headquarters Services. DoD Instruction 5025.01 – DoD Issuances Program
4
Department of Defense. DoD Instruction 5025.01 – DoD Issuances Program