Download the form
DA Form 3953 exists to purchase request and commitment — that is the short version. Title of record: PURCHASE REQUEST AND COMMITMENT. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition 03/01/1991, status ACTIVE, 1 page(s), near 200 fields.
Authority sits in two places. ASA (FM&C) owns the form, N/A 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.
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.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ACCLASS
- APPODT
- APPONMTTL
- BALANCEA
- BALANCEA_1
- BALANCEA_2
- BALANCEA_3
- BALANCEA_4
- BALANCEA_5
- BALANCEA_6
- BALANCEA_7
- BALANCEB
- BALANCEB_1
- BALANCEB_2
- BALANCEB_3
- BALANCEB_4
- BALANCEB_5
- BALANCEB_6
- BALANCEB_7
- BALANCEC
- BALANCEC_1
- BALANCEC_2
- BALANCEC_3
- BALANCEC_4
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.
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 N/A 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.
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.
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.
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 ASA (FM&C) or the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3953?
- PURCHASE REQUEST AND COMMITMENT
- Which edition is current?
- 03/01/1991
- Who is responsible for this form?
- ASA (FM&C)
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA