Download the form
DA Form 5888 handles one job: family member deployment screening sheet. The official title is FAMILY MEMBER DEPLOYMENT SCREENING SHEET. Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 02/01/2026, status ACTIVE, running 1 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 This edition is superseded — pull the newer one unless your record was already executed on this version.
Authority sits in two places. TSG owns the form, AR 608-75 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.
The formats are PDF, XFDL, 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.
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. Xfdl means IBM Lotus Forms. The Lotus Forms Viewer opens it; pdf readers and word processors do not.
No charge, no account, no email address. The file is the published document, distributed unaltered.
What the form asks for
- ADDRESS
- COMMERC
- CONSIDER_A
- CONSIDER_B
- CONSIDER_C
- CONSIDER_D
- CONSIDER_E
- CONSIDER_F
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DATE2
- DATE3
- DATESENT_A
- DATESENT_B
- DATESENT_C
- DATESENT_D
- DATESENT_E
- DATESENT_F
- DOB
- DOB_1
- DOB_2
- DOB_3
- DOB_4
- DOB_5
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.
Move between fields with tab; the build-time order follows the page and misses nothing. Click check boxes and option buttons, and expect an exclusive group to release the old choice when you set a new one. The trap is field width. Single-line fields do not wrap, so an overlong entry displays complete on screen and prints cut at the margin — put it in remarks or on a continuation instead. Mark inapplicable fields rather than leaving them blank, since an empty box carries no information about whether the question was read.
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.
Privacy Act statement first, personal entries second. The notice covers who is authorised to collect, why, who else routinely sees it, and whether you must answer. After completion the file carries personal data and is stored and sent under the corresponding safeguards.
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.
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 TSG or the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 5888?
- FAMILY MEMBER DEPLOYMENT SCREENING SHEET
- Which edition is current?
- 02/01/2026
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TSG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF