Download the form
DA Form 4187 handles one job: personnel action. The official title is PERSONNEL ACTION. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 09/01/2025, status ACTIVE, running 2 page(s) with about 200 fields to complete. This edition is superseded — pull the newer one unless your record was already executed on this version.
G-1 is the proponent, AR 600-8 the prescribing authority. Read the directive only if something about your situation departs from the standard case. Otherwise the form is filled by the individual it describes, or by the records clerk keeping the file, and reviewed through the printed signature blocks.
Pick by how you will enter data: PDF, DOC 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. The doc version is an editable word file for drafting and internal circulation; expect the layout to shift as text is added.
Nothing is charged and no sign-up applies. Files are served as published, without changes to the page image.
What the form asks for
- APPRV_A
- APPRV_B
- APPRV_C
- APPRV_D
- BEEN_VER
- Button8
- CMD_AUTH
- COMMENT_A
- COMMENT_B
- COMMENT_C
- COMMENT_D
- CommandsignDate
- Commandsignat
- ContentArea1
- DATE28aa
- DATE28bb
- DATE28cc
- DATE28dd
- DISAPPRV_A
- DISAPPRV_B
- DISAPPRV_C
- DISAPPRV_D
- DUTY_FROM
- DUTY_TO
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.
Routing follows AR 600-8 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.
Check the edition date before reusing a saved copy. Revisions come from the proponent without notice to you, and the printed date is the only version marker on the page. Already-submitted records under a superseded edition stand as filed; the change does not run backwards.
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 4187?
- PERSONNEL ACTION
- Which edition is current?
- 09/01/2025
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, DOC, PDF
Publisher notes
- REQUIRES PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT (AR 340-21)