Download the form
Use DA Form 2258 when you need to depreservation guide for vehicles and equipment. Full title: DEPRESERVATION GUIDE FOR VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT. Everything you need is on this page — the file, the entry rules, the routing. Edition 05/01/1971, status ACTIVE, 6 page(s), roughly unknown fields. Note the supersession: a later edition exists, and this one applies only to records already completed on it.
Authority sits in two places. AMC owns the form, not stated says when it is raised and where it goes. Routine cases need neither read in full — the page itself carries the sequence. The entries are completed by their subject or by unit administrative staff working from what that person supplies.
The formats are PDF, 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.
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.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
Header first, always. Name as your official records spell it, identification number, unit, date of preparation — these four index the finished record, and an error in them hides the document from anyone searching for it later. The substantive blocks can wait thirty seconds.
Tab through the fields rather than clicking. The tab order was fixed when the form was built and generally follows the page, which catches boxes a mouse skips past. Check boxes and option buttons take a click, and an exclusive group clears the previous selection when you make a new one. Single-line fields do not wrap — text past the field width prints truncated while still showing in full on screen, which is why the loss is discovered after printing. Overflow goes to remarks or a continuation sheet. A field that does not apply gets the mark meaning none; blank space reads as an omission.
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.
The files are copies of published Department of the Army forms. This site has no official connection, no authority to issue anything, and no basis for saying whether an office will accept a given submission. None of the text is legal advice. Real questions — entry, requirement, eligibility — belong with AMC or the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 2258?
- DEPRESERVATION GUIDE FOR VEHICLES AND EQUIPMENT
- Which edition is current?
- 05/01/1971
- Who is responsible for this form?
- AMC
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA