Download the form
DA Form 3161 exists to request for issue or turn-in — that is the short version. Title of record: REQUEST FOR ISSUE OR TURN-IN. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition 12/01/2023, status ACTIVE, 1 page(s), near 200 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 Superseded edition.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: G-4 maintains the content, AR 710-4 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.
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.
Free, unregistered, unmodified. What arrives is what the publisher released.
What the form asks for
- ACCTG_DATA
- BY_A
- BY_B
- BY_C
- CODE
- CODEB
- CODE_1
- CODE_10
- CODE_11
- CODE_12
- CODE_13
- CODE_2
- CODE_3
- CODE_4
- CODE_5
- CODE_6
- CODE_7
- CODE_8
- CODE_9
- ContentArea1
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DATE_C
- DATE_RQD
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.
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.
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 G-4 or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3161?
- REQUEST FOR ISSUE OR TURN-IN
- Which edition is current?
- 12/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-4
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF