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DA Form 7638 is a DA series document issued for use across the Department of the Army. Official title: MILITARY SKETCH PANORAMIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC VIEWS. Purpose: military sketch panoramic and topographic views. The current edition carries the date 12/01/2017 and is listed with a publication status of ACTIVE. The form runs to 1 page(s) and contains approximately 102 entry fields.
The office of primary responsibility is T2COM. Use is prescribed by FM 3-22.10, 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 This edition is superseded; it remains available for reference and for files already executed against it.
Distributed formats: PDF. The layout is common to all of them; what varies is the method of entry. The pdf is the reference version. In the fillable pdf the entry areas are live objects that accept typing; in the printable version the same areas are inert and are filled by hand 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.
All formats are free to download and no registration is involved. The files are the published documents, distributed unmodified.
What the form asks for
- FIELD1
- FIELD10
- FIELD11
- FIELD12
- FIELD13
- FIELD14
- FIELD15
- FIELD16
- FIELD17
- FIELD18
- FIELD19
- FIELD2
- FIELD20
- FIELD21
- FIELD22
- FIELD23
- FIELD24
- FIELD25
- FIELD3
- FIELD4
- FIELD5
- FIELD6
- FIELD7
- FIELD8
The blocks are worked through in the order they appear on the sheet. At the head sit the identifying entries: name, identification number, unit, date. Because the filed record is indexed on these, they precede everything substantive.
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 completed last and by hand or by an accepted electronic means. An unsigned form is a draft. Where a second signature is called for — reviewing official, approving authority, witness — each is applied in the order the blocks appear and dated as of application, not as of preparation. Blank mandatory fields are the most frequent defect; a nil entry is marked as such rather than left empty. Other recurring faults: transposed digits in identification numbers, dates in the wrong order of day and month, and stale copies retaining prior data because a working file was reused instead of a fresh blank form.
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.
Disposition of the completed document follows the prescribing authority — delivery to the office it names, transmission through the unit administrative channel, or placement in the individual's record, according to circumstance. The preparer keeps a copy. Retention is governed by the applicable records schedule, not by office custom.
Related forms are found by series and number. Documents in the DA series sharing a proponent or a prescribing directive commonly travel together, and a form referenced within the body of another is usually filed with it. Continuation sheets, cover sheets, and transmittal documents belong to this group and are collected before submission rather than after.
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.
The documents on this page are reproductions of published Department of the Army forms, offered for download. This is an independent site with no connection to the Department of the Army and no authority to issue forms. Nothing stated is legal advice, and no assurance is given regarding acceptance by any office. Doubts about a specific entry, requirement, or eligibility are resolved by the proponent or by the servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7638?
- MILITARY SKETCH PANORAMIC AND TOPOGRAPHIC VIEWS
- Which edition is current?
- 12/01/2017
- Who is responsible for this form?
- T2COM
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF