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DA Form 3126-1 exists to application and agreement for establishment of a national defense cadet corps unit (s&i milpercen) — that is the short version. Title of record: APPLICATION AND CONTRACT FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL DEFENSE CADET CORPS UNIT. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition 04/01/2023, status ACTIVE, 3 page(s), near 200 fields. Superseded edition. A newer one is out; stay here only for files already executed on this version.
Authority sits in two places. G-1 owns the form, AR 145-2 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.
Pick by how you will enter data: PDF on offer. Typing means fillable pdf, where the boxes accept keystrokes and hold them on save. Handwriting means printable pdf, a flat page image sent straight to a printer. Neither version changes what appears on the page.
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.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ACADEMIC
- ADDRESS
- ARMY
- AVAILB_A
- AVAILB_B
- AVAILB_C
- BUILD_A
- BUILD_A_1
- BUILD_A_2
- BUILD_A_3
- COURSES
- ContentArea1
- ContentArea2
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DENOMIN
- ELECTIVE
- ENROLLMENT
- EQUIPMENT
- ESTABLISH
- EXCLUS_A
- EXCLUS_A_1
- EXCLUS_A_2
- EXCLUS_A_3
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.
Tabbing beats clicking for coverage. The order was set at build time and tracks the page layout, so following it leaves no gaps. Boxes and buttons are clicked; where options are exclusive, one selection cancels another by design. Watch field width on long entries: one-line fields have no wrap, and what runs past the edge disappears in print though the screen still shows it. Move that text to remarks or a continuation. Never leave an inapplicable field empty — enter the nil mark, because a reviewer cannot distinguish a skipped question from a considered answer.
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.
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.
Routing follows AR 145-2 and nothing else — a named office, the unit administrative channel, or the individual's file, according to why the form was raised. Copy it before it leaves. Retention is fixed by the records schedule for the series, which local practice does not shorten or extend.
Related forms are found by series and number. DA series documents under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive are commonly required as a set, and any form named on the face of this one goes forward with it. Assemble continuations, covers and transmittals before submitting, not after the query comes back.
A stored file goes stale silently. The proponent revises, a new edition date is published, and your copy says nothing about it — so compare the printed date against the edition in force before typing into it again. Completed submissions on an earlier edition are not reopened.
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 G-1 or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3126-1?
- APPLICATION AND CONTRACT FOR ESTABLISHMENT OF A NATIONAL DEFENSE CADET CORPS UNIT
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF