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DA Form 597 is a DA series document issued for use across the Department of the Army. Official title: ARMY SENIOR RESERVE OFFICERS` TRAINING CORPS (ROTC) NONSCHOLARSHIP CADET CONTRACT. Purpose: army senior reserve officers` training corps (rotc) nonscholarship cadet contract. The current edition carries the date 04/01/2023 and is listed with a publication status of ACTIVE. The form runs to 5 page(s) and contains approximately 200 entry fields.
The office of primary responsibility is G-1. Use is prescribed by AR 145-1, which defines when the form is raised and where it goes afterward. The form is normally completed by the subject of the entries or by administrative personnel maintaining the record, then reviewed and signed as the governing authority directs. A more recent edition has been published. This edition is superseded; it remains available for reference and for files already executed against it.
Formats offered: PDF, XFDL. 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.
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. An xfdl file is available too. The format is IBM Lotus Forms, in use across Army form systems, and it opens only in the Lotus Forms Viewer.
All formats are free to download and no registration is involved. The files are the published documents, distributed unmodified.
What the form asks for
- COMP_DATE
- ContentArea1
- DATE_EDUC
- DOB
- INSTIT_ADD
- INSTIT_NAM
- MAJOR
- MSII
- MSIII
- MSIV
- MSV
- Mcollection
- Page1
- Page2
- Page3
- Page4
- Page5
- PageArea1
- R100
- R101
- R102
- R103
- R104
- R106
Completion follows the printed sequence of blocks from the top of the page downward. The heading area takes the identifying particulars — name, identification number, organisation, date of preparation. Retrieval of the record from a file depends on these entries, and they are therefore filled first.
Typed entry is made straight into the interactive fields. The tab key moves through them in the order set at build time, generally matching the reading order of the page. Boxes and buttons respond to a click; in an exclusive group, one selection cancels the others. Single-line fields do not wrap, and anything longer than the field width prints cut off although it may still display in full on screen. Extended text goes to remarks or a continuation sheet rather than into a narrow box.
The signature block is the final entry, made by hand or by an authorised electronic method, and without it the document remains a draft. Countersignatures — review, approval, witness — are added in the sequence printed, dated at the moment of signing and not at preparation. Empty mandatory fields lead the list of defects; an inapplicable field is annotated as such, not passed over. Behind it come digit transposition in identification numbers, day-month inversion in dates, and residual entries surviving from a reused copy in place of a blank form.
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.
The completed form is routed as the governing authority prescribes: to the office named in the directive, through the unit administrative channel, or into the individual's file, depending on the case. A copy is retained by the preparer. Filing and retention follow the records schedule applicable to the series rather than local practice.
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.
Editions are replaced when the proponent revises the content. The edition date printed on the form is the means of telling one version from another, and the date on a downloaded copy is checked against the edition in force before use. Records already executed on a prior edition are not reworked on that account.
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 597?
- ARMY SENIOR RESERVE OFFICERS` TRAINING CORPS (ROTC) NONSCHOLARSHIP CADET CONTRACT
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- PRIVACY STATEMENT