You need DD Form 491, and this page gives you the blank plus the steps for handling it. Start with what the form does: Summarized Record of Trial. Its official title is DD Form 491, Summarized Record of Trial, May 2000.
Then look at the edition date: not stated, publisher status not stated. After that, ask whether the form covers your situation. It almost certainly does regardless of your branch — DD forms run Department-wide rather than through a single service.
Once you know the form fits, find out when you file it. not stated sets the requirement, and not stated maintains the form itself. Your own command or agency adds local timing on top of that, so ask your administrative office if the deadline matters to you.
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 A mismatch means you are working from a superseded printing, and because DD forms change Department-wide rather than service by service, the office receiving it will notice.
If a particular field puzzles you, read the instructions printed on the form first, then go to not stated. When the two disagree, follow the directive.
Download the form
Begin by choosing a file. Available here: PDF. Plan for 23 pages and about 181 entries.
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
- Unit/command name.
- Location of judge advocate or general court-martial convening authority/JAG.
- Date record received.
- Final disposition, to file: date.
- Or findings and sentence to file: date.
- Acquittal or sentence set aside, to file: date.
- COpies of CMO disposed of: date.
- Remarks.
- Rank.
- Date signed.
- Chronology sheet. In the case of: rank and name of accused (last, first, middle initial).
- Date of alleged commission of earliest offense tried: day and month.
- Year.
- Date record forwarded to the Judge Advocate General: day and month.
- Year.
- Signature and rank of Staff Judge Advocate or Legal Officer.
- Action date.
- 1. Date accused placed under restraint by military authority.
- Cumulative elapsed days.
- 2. Charges preferred (date of affidavit).
- Cumulative elapsed days.
- 3. Article 32 investigation (date of report).
- 4. Date charges received by convening authority.
- Cumulative elapsed days.
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.
When DD Form 491 references another form, search on the series and number. Because DD numbers are common to every military department, the number by itself identifies exactly one document.
Here is where people go wrong. They see a number in an instruction and download whichever form matches it. But DA and DD are separate systems — Army-specific in one case, Department-wide under not stated in the other — so check which series you were sent to before you take the file.
Do not archive this file and reuse it in a year. Forms are reissued as directives are revised, as data requirements shift, and as statutory notice text is amended. Your protection is simple: download fresh each time and confirm the edition date.
Before you go, note what is not covered here. You have the blank form and instructions for completing it; you do not have legal guidance, and no statement on this page determines what any office will do with your submission. Direct those questions to not stated, to the personnel office that serves you, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 491?
- DD Form 491, Summarized Record of Trial, May 2000
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?