Download the form
DA Form 5097 handles one job: the inspector general oath. The official title is THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OATH. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 11/01/1989, status ACTIVE, running unknown page(s) with about unknown fields to complete.
Two references decide everything about your use of it: TIG maintains the content, AR 20-1 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.
none published here 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.
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.
The heading entries carry more weight than the body. Name spelled as in official records, identification number, organisation, date prepared. Retrieval runs on those values, so a transposed digit or a casual spelling costs someone a file search. Fill them before anything else.
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.
The signature closes the form and nothing precedes it. Draft status holds until it is applied, by hand or by an accepted electronic method. Countersignatures go in printed order, each dated at signing. Then one final read from the top, looking for the four recurring defects: empty mandatory fields, swapped digits in identification numbers, day-month inversion in dates, and residue from a reused file that goes forward as though intended.
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.
What is distributed here are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents. Independent site, no official standing, no forms of its own. Nothing on the page constitutes legal advice, and acceptance by any office is outside what can be stated. Put questions about entries, requirements or eligibility to TIG or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 5097?
- THE INSPECTOR GENERAL OATH
- Which edition is current?
- 11/01/1989
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TIG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- No file published here
Publisher notes
- 10-SENSITIVE FORMS
- 15-REQUIRES PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT & SENSITIVE
- 44-CRITICAL ITEM