Download the form
DA Form 2028 handles one job: recommended changes to publications and blank forms. The official title is RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO PUBLICATIONS AND BLANK FORMS. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 06/01/2018, status ACTIVE, running 1 page(s) with about 53 fields to complete.
CIO is the proponent, AR 25-30 the prescribing authority. Read the directive only if something about your situation departs from the standard case. Otherwise the form is filled by the individual it describes, or by the records clerk keeping the file, and reviewed through the printed signature blocks.
The formats are PDF, XFDL, and the choice comes down to keyboard or pen. Fillable pdf for typing — live fields, tab order, saved entries. Printable pdf for handwriting — same page, no interactive objects, print it blank. Content is identical; only entry method differs.
Use a full pdf reader, not the browser viewer. Browser viewers display fields they cannot always save, and the loss shows up only when you reopen the file — type one entry, save, reopen, verify, then fill the rest. The xfdl file is IBM Lotus Forms, used inside Army systems, and opens in the Lotus Forms Viewer alone — no pdf reader, no word processor.
Nothing is charged and no sign-up applies. Files are served as published, without changes to the page image.
What the form asks for
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DATE_PG2
- FROM_A
- FROM_B
- NAME_A
- NAME_B
- PHONE_A
- PHONE_B
- PUB_NO_A
- PUB_NO_B
- Page1
- Page2
- R10
- R11
- R12
- R13
- R14
- R15
- R16
- RECOM_A
- RECOM_B
The heading entries carry more weight than the body. Name spelled as in official records, identification number, organisation, date prepared. Retrieval runs on those values, so a transposed digit or a casual spelling costs someone a file search. Fill them before anything else.
Move between fields with tab; the build-time order follows the page and misses nothing. Click check boxes and option buttons, and expect an exclusive group to release the old choice when you set a new one. The trap is field width. Single-line fields do not wrap, so an overlong entry displays complete on screen and prints cut at the margin — put it in remarks or on a continuation instead. Mark inapplicable fields rather than leaving them blank, since an empty box carries no information about whether the question was read.
Sign last. An unsigned form is a draft whatever else is on it, and additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — follow printed block order with each signer dating the day they sign, not the day of preparation. Four faults account for most returns: a blank mandatory field, transposed digits in an identification number, day and month reversed in a date, and leftover entries in a working copy reused instead of a fresh blank. Read the form once from the top before releasing it.
The Privacy Act statement is read before the personal entries, not after. It gives the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses and whether disclosure is mandatory or voluntary. Once filled, your copy is a personal record and gets stored and transmitted accordingly.
Send it where the directive says: the office it names, the unit administrative channel, or the individual's file. Take your copy before submission. How long the record is held comes from the schedule for the series, not from the office holding it.
Companion documents come from the same series and number scheme. Within the DA series, a shared proponent or a shared directive usually means shared use, and a form cited on the face of another accompanies it. Gather the whole package first — continuation sheets, cover sheets, transmittals.
Check the edition date before reusing a saved copy. Revisions come from the proponent without notice to you, and the printed date is the only version marker on the page. Already-submitted records under a superseded edition stand as filed; the change does not run backwards.
What is distributed here are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents. Independent site, no official standing, no forms of its own. Nothing on the page constitutes legal advice, and acceptance by any office is outside what can be stated. Put questions about entries, requirements or eligibility to CIO or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2028?
- RECOMMENDED CHANGES TO PUBLICATIONS AND BLANK FORMS
- Which edition is current?
- 06/01/2018
- Who is responsible for this form?
- CIO
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF