Download the form
DA Form 4126 handles one job: bar to continued service. The official title is BAR TO CONTINUED SERVICE. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 04/01/2023, status ACTIVE, running 1 page(s) with about 190 fields to complete. This edition is superseded — pull the newer one unless your record was already executed on this version.
Two references decide everything about your use of it: G-1 maintains the content, AR 601-280 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.
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.
Save the download and open it in a dedicated reader. That single step prevents the common failure: an in-browser viewer accepts your typing and discards it at tab close. Confirm with one field and one save cycle before committing the whole form.
Nothing is charged and no sign-up applies. Files are served as published, without changes to the page image.
What the form asks for
- BAR_DATE
- BAR_DATE1
- BAR_INI_DATE
- CDR_NAME
- CDR_NAME1
- CDR_NAME2
- ContentArea1
- DATE1
- DATE2
- DATE3
- DATE4
- DATE5
- DAYS
- DEROS1
- DO_NOT
- ENCL
- ETS
- FROM
- INI_1
- INI_2
- INI_3
- INI_4
- INI_5
- I_DO
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.
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.
Look for associated forms by series and number. In the DA series, documents sharing a proponent or a governing directive tend to travel together, and anything referenced on the page normally submits alongside. Collect continuations, covers and transmittals in advance of sending.
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 G-1 or the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 4126?
- BAR TO CONTINUED SERVICE
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- PRIVACY STATMENT