Download the form
DA Form 638 exists to recommendation for award — that is the short version. Title of record: RECOMMENDATION FOR AWARD. The page covers the download, the entries and the disposition, nothing else. Current here: edition 04/01/2021, status ACTIVE, 1 page(s), near 200 fields. Superseded edition. A newer one is out; stay here only for files already executed on this version.
Two references decide everything about your use of it: G-1 maintains the content, AR 600-8-22 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.
PDF, XFDL, DOC 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.
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. Doc format is editable in any word processor — good for drafting, weak on layout fidelity once text reflows. Xfdl means IBM Lotus Forms. The Lotus Forms Viewer opens it; pdf readers and word processors do not.
Nothing is charged and no sign-up applies. Files are served as published, without changes to the page image.
What the form asks for
- AA_APPRV
- AA_COMM
- AA_DATE
- AA_DISAP
- AA_FROM
- AA_NAME
- AA_RANK
- AA_TITLE
- AA_TO
- ACHVMNT_A
- ACHVMNT_B
- ACHVMNT_C
- ACHVMNT_D
- ADDRESS
- APPRVAWARD
- APPRV_DATE
- BRANCH
- BUTTON1
- BUTTON10
- BUTTON11
- BUTTON12
- BUTTON13
- BUTTON14
- BUTTON15
Start at the top and get the header exactly right. Official spelling of the name, identification number, unit, date. Everything downstream finds the record through those entries; nothing else on the page has that consequence.
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.
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.
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.
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 G-1 or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 638?
- RECOMMENDATION FOR AWARD
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2021
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, DOC, PDF