Download the form
DA Form 5904-R handles one job: total package approach (tpa) check list (lra). The official title is TOTAL PACKAGE APPROACH (TPA) CHECK LIST (LRA). Download it below, fill it in, sign it, send it where your directive says. The edition on this page is 08/01/1990, status ACTIVE, running 4 page(s) with about 200 fields to complete.
Authority sits in two places. SA owns the form, AR 12-8 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.
PDF, XFDL 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. The xfdl copy needs the IBM Lotus Forms Viewer. That format runs in Army systems and nothing else reads it.
Nothing is charged and no sign-up applies. Files are served as published, without changes to the page image.
What the form asks for
- CASE_DES1
- CASE_DES2
- CASE_MGR
- CHK_A
- CHK_B
- CHK_C
- CHK_D
- CHK_E
- CHK_F
- CHK_G
- COMMENTS
- COUNTRY
- COUNTRY2
- COUNTRY3
- CPM
- ContentArea1
- DATE_A
- DATE_B
- DATE_C
- DATE_D
- DATE_E
- DATE_F
- DATE_H
- DATE_I
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.
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.
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.
Read the Privacy Act statement at the point it appears. Authority, purpose, routine uses, mandatory or voluntary — four facts, and they govern what you are about to enter. A completed copy holds personal data and takes the handling rules that attach to it.
The prescribing directive names the destination; office custom does not. Depending on the case that means a specific office, the unit administrative channel, or the personal record. Keep a copy first, because the original does not come back. Retention runs on the applicable records schedule.
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.
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.
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 SA or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 5904-R?
- TOTAL PACKAGE APPROACH (TPA) CHECK LIST (LRA)
- Which edition is current?
- 08/01/1990
- Who is responsible for this form?
- SA
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 41-ITEM ALSO PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA