BulletForge

Free download, no catch

The Army memo template that actually follows AR 25-50.

Most memorandum templates floating around shared drives were built to the 2020 text, or to no text at all. The current standard is the 4 October 2024 revision of AR 25-50, and it changed rules people still argue about. These two Word templates, the addressed memorandum and the memorandum for record, follow the current regulation line by line. And because a blank template still leaves you staring at placeholders, each one comes with a completed example to pattern yours on.

  • Both documents, not just one. An addressed memorandum template and an MFR template. The MFR has no MEMORANDUM FOR line, because the regulation says it doesn't.
  • Built to the 4 October 2024 revision. Including the rule most old templates get wrong: two spaces after periods and question marks came back. One space was correct from 2020 to 2024. It isn't now.
  • Every line offset per the regulation. MEMORANDUM FOR on the third line below the office symbol, SUBJECT: on the second line below the last address line, text on the third line below the subject, signature block on the fifth line below the text.
  • The parts people forget, already in place. Point of contact paragraph, unjustified right margin, 1-inch margins, block style, numbered paragraphs formatted per figure 2-1.
  • A completed example of each. A finished addressed memorandum and a finished MFR, so you can see what right looks like before you write a word of your own.
  • Ready to type into. Open in Word, replace the placeholders, sign. No reformatting fight before you can start writing.

You'll get all four Word files by email, plus occasional notes on writing that holds up. Unsubscribe in one click any time, no hard feelings.

Four .docx files: two templates, two completed examples. Nothing to reformat.

Why a template needs a date on it

AR 25-50 carries an administrative revision dated 4 October 2024, and it reversed the spacing rule the whole Army had just relearned. A template that predates the revision teaches you the wrong standard on every page. These were built against the current text, and the rules they follow are quoted, paragraph by paragraph, in our AR 25-50 memorandum format walkthrough.

The template handles the layout. The walkthrough explains why each line sits where it does, so when a reviewer questions the format, you can answer with a paragraph number instead of "that's how the template came."

Why free?

Because the format is not the hard part, and pretending otherwise helps nobody. The regulation is public, the layout is mechanical, and you should not have to rebuild it from a figure in a PDF every time you owe someone a memo. The hard part is the writing underneath: bottom line up front, short sentences, facts that survive a cold read.

That is the part BulletForge works on all year. The free leader's book keeps the events an MFR documents, the phone call, the meeting, the accomplishment, on the Soldier's record with a date attached. When the eval comes due, the facts are already there. The templates are yours either way.