Download the form
DA Form 2185 exists to artillery counter fire information — that is the short version. Title of record: ARTILLERY COUNTER FIRE INFORMATION. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition 09/01/2017, status ACTIVE, 1 page(s), near 100 fields. Superseded edition. A newer one is out; stay here only for files already executed on this version.
Two references decide everything about your use of it: T2COM maintains the content, ATP 3-09.30 sets the trigger and the routing. Consult the directive when your case is not routine; otherwise the printed blocks tell you enough. The person named in the entries fills it, or the administrative office holding the file does it for them.
PDF are available and the decision takes one second. Type your entries: fillable pdf. Write them: printable pdf. The published layout is common to both, so the format governs your method and nothing more.
A standalone reader is the safe choice for fillable work. Browser viewers vary in whether entered data survives the session, and there is no warning when it does not; a one-field save test settles it in seconds.
Free, unregistered, unmodified. What arrives is what the publisher released.
What the form asks for
- ACCURACY
- AREA_BOMBED
- DAMAGE
- DIRECTION
- FIRED_BY
- FLASH_TO_BANG
- FROM
- NATURE_OF_FIRE
- NATURE_OF_GUNS
- NUMBER
- NUMBER_OF_ROUNDS
- NUMBER_TYPE_CALIBER
- POSITION_OF_OBSERVER
- POSITION_OF_TARGET
- Page1
- R10
- R11
- R12
- R13
- R14
- R15
- R16
- R17
- R18
Start at the top and get the header exactly right. Official spelling of the name, identification number, unit, date. Everything downstream finds the record through those entries; nothing else on the page has that consequence.
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.
Signature comes after every other entry — ink or an approved electronic means, and without it the document is a draft. Where reviewing, approving or witnessing signatures are called for, take them in printed block order, each dated on the day applied. Before release, one pass from the top. The defects worth hunting are always the same four: mandatory fields left empty, identification digits transposed, dates with day and month reversed, and stale data surviving in a copy reused in place of a blank form.
Read the Privacy Act statement at the point it appears. Authority, purpose, routine uses, mandatory or voluntary — four facts, and they govern what you are about to enter. A completed copy holds personal data and takes the handling rules that attach to it.
The prescribing directive names the destination; office custom does not. Depending on the case that means a specific office, the unit administrative channel, or the personal record. Keep a copy first, because the original does not come back. Retention runs on the applicable records schedule.
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.
Edition date is the version number, printed on the page. Hold a locally saved copy against the current edition before reuse, since nothing on your machine signals a revision. Work already executed under a superseded edition remains as filed.
These are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents, offered for download. The site is independent, connected to nothing official, and issues no forms of its own. Nothing here is legal advice and no statement is made about acceptance by any office. Questions about an entry, a requirement or eligibility go to T2COM or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2185?
- ARTILLERY COUNTER FIRE INFORMATION
- Which edition is current?
- 09/01/2017
- Who is responsible for this form?
- T2COM
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF