Download the form
DA Form 5438 belongs to the DA series of Department of the Army publications. Its official title is INVOLUNTARY TERMINATION FROM EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL (EOD) DUTIES, and its stated purpose is involuntary termination from explosive ordnance disposal (eod) duties. Edition in force: 05/01/2017. Publication status: ACTIVE. Length is 1 page(s), with roughly 46 fields available for entry.
Responsibility for content and revision lies with G-3/5/7. The prescribing directive is 611-105, which sets both the trigger for use and the disposition of the completed document. Entry is made by the named party or by the records clerk holding the file, with review and signature applied in the prescribed order.
Available formats: PDF. Each is a rendering of the same official layout; the content is identical across them and only the means of completion differs. The pdf is the reference copy. Fillable pdf carries interactive form fields; a printable pdf is the same page image without them, intended for pen entry after printing.
The pdf displays in current browsers and in any reader application. For fillable use a full reader is preferable to a browser viewer, since viewers vary in whether entered data is retained.
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
- ContentArea1
- DATE1
- DATE2
- EOD_OFFICER
- FROM
- L11
- L14
- Line1
- Line2
- NAME
- OFFICER
- Page1
- PageArea1
- T11
- T14
- T24
- T28
- T31
- T36
- T37
- T39
- T40
- T41
- T42
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.
Where personal information is gathered, the form carries a Privacy Act statement giving the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses, and the mandatory or voluntary character of the disclosure. It is read before entries are made rather than afterwards. A completed copy holds personal data and is stored and transmitted under the corresponding safeguards.
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.
Companion forms are traced by series and number. Within the DA series, documents sharing a proponent or a governing directive are frequently required together, and a form cited on the face of another is generally submitted alongside it. Continuation sheets, covers, and transmittal forms are part of that set and are assembled in advance of submission.
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 5438?
- INVOLUNTARY TERMINATION FROM EXPLOSIVE ORDNANCE DISPOSAL (EOD) DUTIES
- Which edition is current?
- 05/01/2017
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-3/5/7
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF