First, confirm you are on the right form. DA Form 5182-R carries the official title SOIL SUCTION, WATER CONTENT AND SPECIFIC VOLUME (LRA), and you use it to soil suction, water content and specific volume (lra). Second, check the edition: the copy offered here is dated 03/01/1983 and its publication status is ACTIVE. Third, size up the job — 1 page(s) and about 200 entry fields, so you can decide whether to fill it now or set aside time.
Now decide who does the writing. Normally you enter your own particulars, then hand the sheet to the unit administrative office for review. If you work in that office, you enter what the individual brings you. From there the path is the same for everyone: USACE is responsible for the form, and TM 5-818-7 tells you what triggers it and where it ends up. Look at the directive first whenever your case departs from the ordinary.
Start at the top of the page and work down. The heading blocks come first: write your name as it appears on your official records, then your identification number, then your unit or organisation, then the date you are preparing the form. Do not skip ahead to the interesting parts and come back — these heading entries are how your form is found in the file afterwards, and a form filed under a misspelled name is a form nobody can locate.
Once you reach the body of the form, move between fields with the tab key rather than the mouse; it follows the order the form was built in and you are less likely to skip a box. Click check boxes and option buttons directly. When you meet a group of options where only one can apply, notice that selecting a second one clears the first — that is intended, not a fault. Watch your longer answers as you type them. A single-line field does not wrap, so text that runs past the edge stays visible on screen and then prints cut off. When you see that happening, stop and move the text to the remarks area or a continuation instead of squeezing it in. If a field does not apply to you, mark it rather than leaving it empty; a blank space tells the reviewer nothing about whether you considered the question or missed it.
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
Then choose a file to download. What you will see offered is PDF, XFDL, and the only question you need to answer is whether you are typing or writing. Type, and you want the fillable pdf, where the entry areas respond to your keyboard. Write, and you want the printable pdf, which you print empty and complete with a pen. The layout does not change between them, so pick whichever fits how you plan to work today.
Once the file is on your machine, open it deliberately. A pdf will usually launch in your browser, which reads well enough but does not always hold what you type; certain viewers display the fields and then discard your entries. Save the download to a folder, open it from there in a dedicated reader, and test one field and one save before you commit to filling the whole thing. If the xfdl file is what you need, install the IBM Lotus Forms Viewer first. No pdf reader and no word processor will open it.
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
- BORSAMDEP
- COLA_A
- COLA_A_1
- COLA_A_2
- COLA_A_3
- COLA_A_4
- COLA_A_5
- COLA_A_6
- COLA_A_7
- COLA_B
- COLA_B_1
- COLA_B_2
- COLA_B_3
- COLA_B_4
- COLA_B_5
- COLA_B_6
- COLA_C
- COLA_C_1
- COLA_C_10
- COLA_C_11
- COLA_C_12
- COLA_C_13
- COLA_C_14
- COLA_C_15
With the form signed, send it where TM 5-818-7 tells you to send it — usually to the office it names, or through your unit administrative channel, or straight into your own record, depending on why you raised it. Keep a copy for yourself before it leaves your hands. How long the receiving office holds it is not your decision or theirs; the records schedule for the series settles that, and local habit does not override it.
If you find you need a second form to go with this one, look by series and number. Forms in the DA series that share a proponent or a prescribing directive are often used together, and any form named on the face of this one normally goes forward with it. Gather continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittal documents before you submit, not after somebody asks for them.
The next time you open this form from your own files, check the edition date first. Revisions come from the proponent without warning to you, so the only reliable step is to hold your copy against the current edition before filling it in again. Records you already completed under a superseded edition stand, and you do not go back to rework them.
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 USACE or to the administrative office serving your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 5182-R?
- SOIL SUCTION, WATER CONTENT AND SPECIFIC VOLUME (LRA)
- Which edition is current?
- 03/01/1983
- Who is responsible for this form?
- USACE
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 41-ITEM ALSO PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA