You have arrived looking for DD Form 2742. Before you download, confirm this is the right document: Optical Archive History Log. Full title: DD Form 2742, Optical Archive History Log, February 1996.
Your second step is the edition, not stated, listed as not stated. Your third is scope. Because the number carries a DD prefix, you use the same blank as every other military department and defense agency; no service-specific version exists for you to hunt down.
After that, turn to timing. The requirement comes from not stated; the form is maintained by not stated. Local implementing instructions fill in the dates, so check with the office that will receive your copy.
Before you download, pick your approach — editable file or printed page. What follows covers the formats first, then the entries, then what you do afterward.
Now fill it in. Work from the top of the page downward, and do not jump ahead — the identifying block comes first, the substance of your entry second, the certification last. Later boxes often depend on what you put at the top.
Your first action is verification. Find the edition date on the form and match it against not stated. A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
For questions about a specific entry, check the form's own instructions, and if that does not settle it, open not stated. The directive controls where they differ.
Download the form
Step one is picking the format. You have PDF to choose from, across 1 pages, with approximately 200 fields to complete.
All of it downloads free. When you are ready to work, do this: save the file locally, then open it in a full pdf application. Browsers often ignore field properties, and you can lose everything you typed.
What the form asks for
- 1. A S C.
- 2. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 3. Function.
- 4. Optical disk number, line 1.
- 5. Side A or B.
- 6. Opening entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 7. Closing entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 8. Initials.
- 9. Purge date.
- 10. Purge by date.
- 11. Remarks.
- 4. Optical disk number, line 10.
- 5. Side A or B.
- 6. Opening entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 7. Closing entries. a. RADAY.
Now that it is complete, send it where not stated or your local procedure says it goes. Before you do, make yourself a copy — scan it or save the file elsewhere. It costs you nothing and saves you the whole exercise if the original goes missing.
Should you need a related form, look it up by its number. The DD sequence is Department-wide, which makes your search simple: no service qualifier, no branch-specific variant to track down.
Be careful when a procedure pairs this form with a service form. Read the prefix, not just the digits. Service forms answer to a service proponent, while DD forms answer to not stated or an equivalent Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Grabbing the wrong prefix gets you a form that has nothing to do with your task.
Plan to repeat this step whenever the form comes up again. Revisions follow directive changes, changes in what data is collected, and updates to notice language. Since nobody notifies you, check not stated at download and you have covered it.
One thing this page does not do: tell you whether your submission will be accepted. We publish the document and explain how to complete it, and that is where our role ends. Nothing here is legal advice. Take questions about eligibility, applicability or procedure to not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2742?
- DD Form 2742, Optical Archive History Log, February 1996
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?