Download the form
Use DA Form 4237-R when you need to detainee personnel record (lra). Full title: DETAINEE PERSONNEL RECORD. Everything you need is on this page — the file, the entry rules, the routing. Edition 08/01/1985, status ACTIVE, 2 page(s), roughly 200 fields.
Two references decide everything about your use of it: PMG maintains the content, AR 190-8 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.
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.
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
- ARMS
- BLOOD
- CAMPLOCAL
- CAPPLACE
- CAPTUNIT
- CAPTURE
- CIVILIAN
- CONDTION
- CORPAREA
- CREDIT_A
- CREDIT_B
- CREDIT_C
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DATEPREP
- DATE_1
- DATE_2
- DATE_3
- DATE_4
- DATE_5
- DATE_6
- DATE_7
- DATE_8
- DOB
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.
Sign last. An unsigned form is a draft whatever else is on it, and additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — follow printed block order with each signer dating the day they sign, not the day of preparation. Four faults account for most returns: a blank mandatory field, transposed digits in an identification number, day and month reversed in a date, and leftover entries in a working copy reused instead of a fresh blank. Read the form once from the top before releasing it.
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 190-8 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.
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 PMG or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 4237-R?
- DETAINEE PERSONNEL RECORD
- Which edition is current?
- 08/01/1985
- Who is responsible for this form?
- PMG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF