How to Fill Out DA Form 2339: Voluntary Retirement Packet in IPPS-A

DA Form 2339 is the Application for Voluntary Retirement that active duty Army soldiers submit to request retirement after 20 or more years of service. You fill out Section I with your personal and service data, your commander completes Section II with the service computation and recommendation, and the completed form is routed as part of a Personnel Action Request in IPPS-A. Under Army Directive 2026-08, the request must be submitted between 12 and 24 months before the first-of-the-month date you want to retire.¹

Who Can Submit the Form

The floor is 20 years of active federal service. For commissioned officers, 10 U.S.C. § 7311 lets the Secretary of the Army approve retirement on request once an officer has at least 20 years of service with at least 10 as a commissioned officer on active duty.² Enlisted soldiers meet the same 20-year threshold under Army Regulation 635-200.³ Officer transfers and discharges, including voluntary retirement, run through AR 600-8-24.⁴

One caveat before you start filling anything out: outstanding active duty service obligations block retirement. An ADSO is time you owe for military education, training, or a permanent change of station. Service academy graduates typically owe five years, ROTC scholarship recipients four, OCS graduates three, and officers pick up a one-year ADSO even for a routine PCS from overseas to CONUS.⁵ If you have an unfulfilled ADSO, you need an approved exception-to-policy waiver in the packet. Without it, HRC will deny the request.

Filling Out Section I

Section I is yours to complete. Work from your personnel records, not memory, because the service computation at the bottom has to be exact to the day.

Full legal name and Social Security Number, matching your personnel records.
Your current expiration of term of service and the retirement date you are requesting. The retirement date must fall on the first day of a month.⁶
Current grade, pay grade, and military occupational specialty.
Highest grade you have held on active duty and your branch of service.
Current unit, duty station, and major command.
Mailing address for post-retirement correspondence. This is not your home of selection.
Any decorations you hold in the categories the form lists, such as the Medal of Honor, Soldier’s Medal, Distinguished Service Cross, or Distinguished Flying Cross.
Chronological service dates covering every enlistment and discharge, plus any changes between active and inactive status.
Total time lost from service. Enter “None” if none applies.
Total active service creditable for retirement, calculated to the exact day and excluding any lost time.
Total inactive service creditable for basic pay only.
Total service for basic pay, which is the sum of your active and inactive service.

Block 30 contains a Statement of Understanding covering the required retirement medical examination and confirming you received a Survivor Benefit Plan briefing. Your signature in Block 30 acknowledges both.

What Your Commander Completes in Section II

Section II is completed by your commander or the office holding your personnel records. It verifies the service computation you entered, records the date you arrived at your current assignment (which matters if you are overseas), notes whether you have outstanding service obligations, states whether the request is being submitted in lieu of elimination proceedings, and captures the commander’s recommendation to approve or disapprove.⁷

Building the Rest of the Packet

The DA Form 2339 travels inside a larger retirement packet compiled as a single PDF for IPPS-A submission. What else you include depends on whether you are enlisted or an officer.

Enlisted Packets

DA Form 2339, completed by the servicing Retirement Services Office or Military Personnel Division.
Sexual Assault Memorandum, required on all retirement packets.
Soldier Talent Profile (which replaced the older Enlisted Record Brief).
DA Form 4187, signed by an O-6 or higher.
Any exception-to-policy or waiver requests that apply.⁸

Officer Packets

Retirement Request Memorandum (your formal written request).
Voluntary Retirement Endorsement Memo signed by an O-6 or higher in your chain of command.
Sexual Assault Memorandum.
Soldier Talent Profile or Officer Record Brief pulled from AIM II.
Tuition Assistance Acknowledgement Memo.
DD Form 7301-R, uploaded by the MPD after verifying that all legacy documents are attached.⁸

Service Verification Documents

Both packet types need documents that back up the service computation on the form. That typically means your initial enlistment contract (DD Form 4-1 and 4-3), every reenlistment contract, any oaths of extension on DA Form 1695, prior-service DD Form 214s or NGB Form 22s, and your most recent LES. Officers also include their initial Oath of Office (DA Form 71), orders to active duty, and appointment letter.⁹ If a contract or a DD-214 from an earlier period is missing, ask your career counselor for a RETAIN screenshot or request records from the National Personnel Records Center before submitting. Missing early-career documents are one of the most common reasons packets get bounced.

Submitting Through IPPS-A

Retirement requests are submitted as a Personnel Action Request in IPPS-A. Combine every document into one PDF, attach it to the PAR, and enter your requested retirement date as the effective date.⁸

From there the PAR moves through a fixed routing chain:

The S1 Pool receives the PAR and adds the routing chain.
The battalion commander and CSM review and recommend.
The brigade commander and CSM review and recommend.
The local MPD or RSO reviews the packet and recommends approval. The local MPD must be set up as an approver in IPPS-A so it can receive HRC’s decision.
HRC Retirements and Separations approves or denies and attaches the decision.
The MPD/RSO receives the decision back and creates the separation action in IPPS-A.
The S1 Pool clicks “Complete” to close the PAR.⁸

When to Submit

Army Directive 2026-08 permanently sets the submission window at 12 to 24 months before your requested retirement date.¹ Submit earlier than 24 months out and the packet comes back. Submit inside 12 months and you leave almost no room for routing delays, corrections, or HRC processing. The 18-to-24-month range gives you the most cushion for fixing problems.

DD Form 2656 Is Separate

DA Form 2339 is not the form that sets up your retired pay. That is DD Form 2656, Data for Payment of Retired Personnel, which DFAS uses to establish your retired pay account, beneficiary designations, state tax withholding, dependent information, and Survivor Benefit Plan election.¹⁰ DFAS offers a Smart Wizard online, or you can complete the PDF version.¹¹

The SBP election on DD Form 2656 catches people. Retiring active duty members are automatically enrolled in maximum SBP coverage for eligible family members unless they affirmatively elect otherwise. If you are married and elect anything less than full spouse coverage, your spouse must sign the DD Form 2656 concurring, and that signature must be notarized and dated on or after your own. Skip that, and the election defaults back to full spouse coverage.¹²

Changing or Withdrawing After Approval

Once HRC has approved the request, reversing it is hard on purpose. Under AR 635-200, Chapter 12-15, you can withdraw an approved retirement only if remaining on active duty would prevent an extreme hardship to you or your immediate family, and the hardship must have been unforeseen when you applied. Changing your mind about retiring does not qualify.¹³

Withdrawal requests go through a new IPPS-A PAR with full justification, endorsed at the brigade commander level, and must reach HRC at least 30 days before your approved retirement date. Withdrawal is prohibited outright once you have performed travel for retirement. If you only need to shift the date, you can request a date change through the same process, but the new date cannot be more than 12 months from the date on the PAR, and it needs the same brigade endorsement and 30-day lead time.¹³

1
Soldier for Life. Retirement Process
2
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 10 USC 7311 – Twenty Years or More Regular or Reserve Commissioned Officers
3
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Regular Army Enlisted Retirements and Separations
4
RAND. Retirement Grade
5
RAND. Military Service Obligation
6
Soldier for Life. Department of the Army Retirement Planning Seminar
7
armyreal.com. Application for Voluntary Retirement DA Form 2339
8
IPPS-A. Enlisted and Officer Retirement or Separation Request PAR Routing Job Aid
9
U.S. Army Garrison Humphreys. Retirement Checklist
10
U.S. Army Garrison Bavaria. DD2656 Data for Payment of Retired Personnel
11
Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Retired Military Forms
12
National Guard. Survivor Benefit Plan SBP Fact Sheet
13
U.S. Army Human Resources Command. Request for Withdrawal of an Approved Retirement or Date Change