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DA Form 3161 belongs to the DA series of Department of the Army publications. Its official title is REQUEST FOR ISSUE OR TURN-IN, and its stated purpose is request for issue or turn-in. Edition in force: 12/01/2023. Publication status: ACTIVE. Length is 1 page(s), with roughly 200 fields available for entry.
Proponency for the form rests with G-4. The governing authority is AR 710-4, which establishes the circumstances of use and the required routing. Preparation falls to the individual named in the entries or to the unit administrator acting on that individual's behalf; review and signature follow the chain set out in the governing authority. A later edition of this form exists. The edition shown here is superseded and is retained for reference and for records already executed on it.
Formats offered: PDF. All are the same published layout in different containers, and the choice between them is a matter of how the entries will be made rather than what appears on the page. The pdf serves as the authoritative rendering. A fillable pdf exposes editable fields on screen; a printable pdf is the blank form as a flat page for handwriting.
A pdf opens in any current browser or in a dedicated reader. Fillable behaviour is more reliable in a full reader than in a browser viewer, where some field types render but do not save.
Download of every format is free and requires no account. Files are served as published, without alteration to the page image.
What the form asks for
- ACCTG_DATA
- BY_A
- BY_B
- BY_C
- CODE
- CODEB
- CODE_1
- CODE_10
- CODE_11
- CODE_12
- CODE_13
- CODE_2
- CODE_3
- CODE_4
- CODE_5
- CODE_6
- CODE_7
- CODE_8
- CODE_9
- ContentArea1
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DATE_C
- DATE_RQD
Entry proceeds block by block in the order printed on the page. Identifying particulars occupy the head of the form: name, identification number, unit or organisation, and date of preparation. These fields govern how the record is later retrieved from the file, so they are completed before any substantive block.
Fillable fields accept typing directly. Tab advances from one field to the next in the order the form was built, which is normally the reading order of the page. Check boxes and option buttons are clicked; where a set of options is exclusive, selecting one clears the rest. Fields sized for a single line will not wrap, and text exceeding the width is truncated in print even where it remains visible on screen. Long entries belong in the remarks area or on a continuation, not compressed into a narrow field.
Signature comes at the end, applied in ink or by an accepted electronic method. Until it is applied the document is a draft. Additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — are taken in printed block order, each dated when signed rather than when the form was drafted. The commonest error is a mandatory field left blank; where nothing applies, the entry is marked accordingly instead of being skipped. Transposed identification digits, day and month reversed in dates, and carried-over data from a reused working copy account for most of the remainder.
A Privacy Act statement appears on the form where personal information is collected. It sets out the authority for collection, the purpose, the routine uses, and whether disclosure is mandatory or voluntary. The statement is read before entry, not after. Completed copies carry personal data and are handled and stored under the safeguards applicable to that data.
Once completed, the form goes where the governing authority directs: to the designated office, along the unit administrative channel, or into the personal file. The preparer retains a copy. The length of retention and the manner of filing are set by the records schedule for the series, not by local arrangement.
Associated documents are located through the series and number scheme. Forms in the DA series with the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be used as a set, and any form named on the face of another normally accompanies it. Continuations, cover sheets, and transmittals fall into this category and are gathered before the package is sent.
Revision by the proponent supersedes an edition. Version is read from the edition date printed on the form itself, and a stored copy is compared against the current edition before it is used again. Documents already executed under an earlier edition are not redone because of the change.
What is offered here are copies of published Department of the Army documents, made available for download. The site is independent of the Department of the Army and publishes no forms of its own. The material is informational and not legal advice, and no statement is made about whether any office will accept a given document. Questions of entry, requirement, or eligibility go to the proponent or the servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3161?
- REQUEST FOR ISSUE OR TURN-IN
- Which edition is current?
- 12/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-4
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF