Begin by matching the form to your task. DA Form 3022 is titled ARMY DEPOT SURVEILLANCE RECORD, and you reach for it when you need to army depot surveillance record. Once that matches, check the date. The edition here is 10/01/2016, published with the status ACTIVE. After that, glance at the length: you will be working through 2 page(s) and somewhere near 77 fields. Check this before anything else — a more recent edition is out. Stay on this one only if the record you are handling was already completed on it.
Then work out your role. If the entries describe you, you fill them in and someone in the administrative section checks the result. If you handle records for others, you enter what they supply and pass the form along. In both cases the same two references govern you: G-4 maintains the form, and DA PAM 742-1 sets out the trigger for using it and the route it takes. Read that directive before you start when anything about your case is unusual.
Work from the top down, one block at a time. First the name — copy it from your official records rather than writing it the way you usually do. Then the identification number, then the unit, then today's date. Fill these before anything else. When the form reaches a file cabinet or a database, these are the entries someone searches on, so get them right before you worry about the rest.
In the body of the form, tab from field to field instead of clicking around. The tab order follows how the form was constructed, which keeps you from missing a box. For check boxes and option buttons, click them. If you find a set where the choices are exclusive, expect your new selection to clear the previous one. Keep an eye on long entries as you type: fields built for one line will not wrap, and what overflows the width will print truncated even though your screen shows all of it. At that point move the text into remarks or onto a continuation. And when something does not apply to you, say so in the field — write the entry that means "none" rather than leaving white space a reviewer has to interpret.
Sign at the end and not before. Use ink or the electronic method your office accepts; whatever the state of the entries, an unsigned form is still a draft. When a reviewer, approver or witness has to sign as well, collect those signatures in printed block order and make sure each one is dated the day it was applied, not the day you started. Then read the form through once from the beginning. Three faults account for most rejections: a required field left blank, an identification number with two digits swapped, and a date whose day and month are reversed. Add a fourth if you began from an old working copy — data left over from the last time will travel forward untouched.
At some point while filling the form you will meet a Privacy Act statement, and you should read it when you reach it rather than after you finish. It tells you who is authorised to collect the information, what it will be used for, who else may see it, and whether you are obliged to answer or may decline. Once you have entered your details, treat the file accordingly: it now holds personal information about you, so store it and send it the way your office handles such records.
Download the form
Now pick your file. You have PDF to choose from, and the choice depends on one thing: whether you will type the entries or write them by hand. Choose the fillable pdf when you want to type, tab between fields and keep a clean copy on your computer. Choose the printable pdf when you intend to print the blank first and write on paper. The pages look identical either way, so you are not giving anything up by picking the wrong one — you are only choosing how you work.
Then take care with how you open what you downloaded. Your browser will happily display a pdf, and for reading that is enough — but for typing it is not, because some in-browser viewers accept keystrokes and then throw them away when the tab closes. Put the file somewhere on disk, open it in a proper reader, type into one field and save, and confirm the text is still there when you reopen.
Then simply download. There is no charge, no sign-up and no email to hand over, and the file that arrives is exactly what the publisher released.
What the form asks for
- ALT
- CLASS
- CONDITION
- ContentArea1
- DODIC
- DOM
- DOT
- DOTNOMEN
- EXPL
- HAZARD
- LOT
- LOTNO
- Line1
- NAME
- NOMEN
- NSN
- NSNPN
- PACKAGE
- PACKCU
- Page1
- Page2
- R10
- R52
- R53
Now send it on. Follow the routing in the prescribing directive, which will point you to a named office, to your unit administrative channel, or to your own file. Take a copy before you release it. From there the record follows the retention schedule for the series, and neither you nor the receiving clerk shortens or extends that on local judgement.
When another document has to travel with this one, find it by series and number. Forms in the DA series sharing a proponent or a governing directive are commonly used in combination, and anything cited on the face of your form generally goes with it. Assemble continuation sheets, covers and transmittals before you send the package rather than in response to a query.
Before you reuse a saved copy, look at the edition date printed on it. The proponent revises the form from time to time, and your stored file will not tell you when that happens — you compare its date against the current edition yourself. If a revision has come out since you last filed one of these, leave the earlier submission alone; the change does not reach backwards.
Finally, know where you are. These are copies of published Department of the Army forms, made available for you to download. The site is independent, unconnected to the Department of the Army, and in no position to issue forms or to promise that any office will accept yours. None of this is legal advice. If a specific entry puzzles you, if you are unsure a requirement applies, or if eligibility is in question, put the question to G-4 or to the administrative office serving your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3022?
- ARMY DEPOT SURVEILLANCE RECORD
- Which edition is current?
- 10/01/2016
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-4
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF