Download the form
Treat DD Form 1138-1 as Department-level, which changes how you look for it. Title: DD Form 1138-1, Inventory Report of Principal or Secondary Items, September 1999. Function: Inventory Report of Principal or Secondary Items. Because the number carries DD rather than a service prefix, the same edition covers all military departments and the defense agencies at once. Nobody issues a Navy copy or an Air Force copy.
Authority: not stated prescribes it, not stated maintains it. Those two names settle most disputes about why the form is being asked for. Local commands add timing on top; the requirement itself comes from above them.
Use not stated, status not stated. Older printings circulate widely and lose their currency Department-wide the moment a new edition issues.
The set is PDF. Size: 1 pages, about 147 fields. Everything below refines that choice.
Fillable pdf is the default choice. Its boxes hold typed entries inside the document; the printable release is a static image of the same page with no interactive layer. Since DD forms routinely cross between services and agencies before they are filed, typed entries matter more here than on a form that stays inside one office.
Skip xfdl unless the viewer is already installed. It is the IBM Lotus Forms format, adopted Department-wide for electronic forms and still present in the set for that reason; ordinary pdf software reports it as unreadable.
Nothing costs anything here. Work in a full desktop pdf application rather than a browser preview; field behaviour in browsers is unreliable.
What the form asks for
- As of 30th September (enter year).
- (1) Routing Identifier code, character 1.
- Routing identifier code, character 2.
- Routing identifier code, character 3.
- c. Description.
- (2) DoD category of materiel code, character 1.
- DoD category of materiel code, character 2.
- (3) Agency category of materiel code (or budget project number), character 1.
- (3) Agency category of materiel code (or budget project number), character 2.
- c. Description.
- c. Description.
- (4) Appropriation title code, character 1.
- (4) Appropriation title code, character 3.
- (4) Appropriation title code, character 4.
- (4) Appropriation title code, character 2.
- (5) Principal or secondary items. Enter P for Principal item or S for Secondary.
- (6) Consumable or reparable items. Enter C or R.
- 2. Assets (in thousands of dollars). (7) Approved acquisition objective. Retail value, 1st digit (or initial zero).
- Retail value, digit 2.
- Retail value, digit 3.
- Retail value, digit 4.
- Retail value, digit 5.
- Retail value, digit 6.
- Retail value, digit 7.
Start by matching the printed date to not stated. Old blanks accumulate in shared folders for years. Because the Department reissues to all services in one action, nobody is still accepting the previous layout by local custom.
Work the printed sequence: header, body, signature block. The order is functional rather than decorative, since entries below frequently key to identifying data above them.
Mark inapplicable items N/A rather than leaving white space. Use the date format the form specifies. This matters more on Department forms than on service forms: the record may be reviewed by personnel outside your branch who share none of your office conventions.
Privacy Act Statement first, personal entries second. It names the authority for the collection, what the data is for, who else routinely sees it, and whether you have to answer at all.
Sign last, in ink or with a credentialed digital signature. A typed name in a signature field certifies nothing. CAC-based signing is the usual electronic method where the receiving system supports it. Date the block immediately — unsigned and undated certifications account for a large share of returns.
Review for the usual: old edition, blank required fields, illegibility on reproduction, date format, signature and date. Unclear entries — read the form face, then not stated; the directive prevails.
Route it where not stated or local procedure directs, and keep a copy first. On a Department form the receiving office is frequently outside your own chain — another service, a defense agency, a joint command — which makes recovering a lost original slower than it would be internally.
A number is a complete address in the DD series. Because the sequence is Department-level and not duplicated per service, there is nothing further to specify.
Prefix before number. A DA citation and a DD citation in the same instruction point at separate systems — one Army, administered by an Army proponent, one Department-wide under not stated — and there is no correspondence between them at any number.
Revision follows directive changes, changed data requirements and amended notice language, unannounced. Verify not stated each time rather than trusting a saved copy — the cost of the check is seconds.
What is here is the blank form and a description of it. What is not here is legal guidance or any assurance about a particular filing — this page is not the issuing authority and does not speak for one. Those questions go to not stated, to your servicing administrative office, or to the authority identified in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1138-1?
- DD Form 1138-1, Inventory Report of Principal or Secondary Items, September 1999
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?