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Treat DD Form 2742 as Department-level, which changes how you look for it. Title: DD Form 2742, Optical Archive History Log, February 1996. Function: Optical Archive History Log. 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.
not stated is the prescribing publication and not stated the office responsible for the document. Deadlines belong to local implementing guidance, not to either of those, so a submission date is a question for the receiving office.
Edition not stated, status not stated. That comparison is the first thing worth making, because a DD form supersedes centrally and an old copy in a shared drive is out of date for every office, not just yours.
Formats: PDF. Length 1 pages, approximately 200 entries.
Xfdl is a legacy Department format, IBM Lotus Forms, requiring the matching viewer. Its survival in DD distribution reflects how widely it was fielded across the Department, not any advantage over pdf today.
All formats are free. One operational note: save the file locally and open it in a desktop reader. Browser-embedded viewers drop field properties and lose typed data without warning.
What the form asks for
- 1. A S C.
- 2. Date (4 digit year, 2 digit month, 2 digit day).
- 3. Function.
- 4. Optical disk number, line 1.
- 5. Side A or B.
- 6. Opening entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 7. Closing entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 8. Initials.
- 9. Purge date.
- 10. Purge by date.
- 11. Remarks.
- 4. Optical disk number, line 10.
- 5. Side A or B.
- 6. Opening entries. a. RADAY.
- b. ASN.
- c. Time.
- d. Reload number.
- 7. Closing entries. a. RADAY.
Verify the edition before the first keystroke. The date on the form face should read not stated. If it does not, discard the file. Field numbering shifts between editions, and on a DD form the new layout reaches every receiving office in every service at once — there is no lag during which the old version is still normal somewhere.
Unclear entries — read the form face, then not stated; the directive prevails.
Submit to the office named in not stated or in local instruction; retain a duplicate before it leaves. Joint routing often sends a DD form across organizational boundaries, and tracing one afterward is not a same-day matter.
Related forms are found by number alone. The DD sequence is one unified Department-wide series, so a cited number resolves to exactly one document with no branch qualifier needed.
Where a procedure cites both a service form and a DD form, the two are unconnected. Service numbering answers to a service proponent, DD numbering to not stated or another Department office, and the two sequences were never aligned. Matching numbers mean nothing whatever.
Three drivers of revision: directive reissue, altered collection requirements, updated statutory notice text. No notification accompanies any of them, so download fresh and confirm not stated rather than reusing an archived file.
This page publishes a Defense document and explains its contents. It does not advise, does not rule on applicability, and determines nothing about how a completed form will be treated. Direct such questions to not stated, to the servicing personnel office, or to the office designated in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 2742?
- DD Form 2742, Optical Archive History Log, February 1996
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?