Administrative documents are written for readers who were not present, and DA Form 1574-2 is no exception. Titled REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS BY BOARD OF OFFICERS, it is used to report of proceedings by board of officers — a transaction that means little in conversation and a great deal in a file. The published edition here carries the date 04/01/2016 and the status ACTIVE. Its 1 page(s) and roughly 200 fields are sized to what the record must prove years later, which is always more than the moment appears to need.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by TJAG, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by AR 15-6. That division is the reason a form can outlive several changes in the process it serves.
Identification precedes substance for a structural reason. Name, identification number, organisation and date of preparation are how the finished document is located in a file or a database; the body of the form is what someone reads after the search has succeeded. Spell the name as official records spell it, since the search runs against those records and not against habit.
Tab order is not a convenience feature; it was fixed when the form was built and generally traces the page, so following it produces the sequence the designer intended and leaves fewer gaps than a mouse. Exclusive option groups clear the previous selection because the record is not permitted to hold two contradictory answers. Single-line fields do not wrap for the same reason the layout is fixed: the printed page has to fall in known positions, so text past the field width is cut at the margin even though the screen still shows it whole. Overflow belongs in remarks or on a continuation, where there is room designed for it. And an inapplicable field is marked rather than skipped, since a blank tells a later reader nothing about whether the question was considered.
A signature is what converts entries into a record, which is why it comes last and why an unsigned form remains a draft however complete it looks. Where a reviewing official, an approving authority or a witness also signs, each adds a distinct attestation, and each dates the day of signing rather than the day of preparation — the dates trace the sequence of responsibility. The recurring defects are worth knowing precisely because they defeat that purpose: an empty mandatory field leaves an obligation unmet, transposed identification digits attach the record to nobody, a date with day and month reversed puts events in the wrong order, and entries left in a reused working copy assert facts nobody intended.
The Privacy Act statement is on the page because collecting personal information requires the collector to disclose the terms first — the authority relied on, the purpose, the routine uses, and whether an answer is required or may be withheld. That order is the point: the statement is read before the entries it governs, since consent given afterwards is not consent. Once completed, the copy is a personal record and carries the handling obligations that attach to one.
Download the form
Why several files for one page? Because the form has to be completed in a headquarters and in places without a workstation, and PDF covers both. The fillable pdf holds interactive fields that fix each entry in place and remove handwriting from the equation. The printable pdf is the same layout without those fields, meant for a printer and a pen. Neither is a lesser copy of the other; each answers a condition the other cannot.
Software determines whether an entry lasts. A browser viewer is designed for reading, and several will take typed input into fields without any means of writing it back — the text is simply absent when you reopen. A standalone reader handles the form structure properly.
There is no charge and no sign-up. Published documents are distributed as published, without modification.
What the form asks for
- Accomplished_By1
- Accomplished_By2
- Action_Recommended
- Appointed_By1
- Approved
- Brierf_Explanation
- Capacity
- Check
- Check_here
- Commenced_At
- Corrective_Action1
- Corrective_Action2
- Date1
- Date2
- Date3
- Date4
- Disapproved
- FIND_APPR1
- FIND_APPR2
- FIND_APPR3
- FIND_APPR4
- Findings
- Findings2
- Form_Rectangle
Disposition is prescribed, not chosen. AR 15-6 names the destination, whether that is a specific office, the unit administrative channel or the personal record, and the applicable records schedule governs how long it survives there. Both rules exist to keep the file consistent across offices with different habits. Take your copy before the document leaves, since it will not come back.
Forms cluster by series and number for the same reason files do: shared proponency and a shared prescribing directive usually mean a shared process. So a document in the DA series referenced on the face of another is generally part of the same transaction, and continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittals belong to the package from the outset rather than arriving after a query.
Editions change because the process changes, and the printed edition date is the only marker of which version a page belongs to. A copy saved locally cannot know it has been superseded, so the date on it is compared against the edition in force before reuse. Records already executed under an earlier edition are left alone — a document is read under the terms it was made, and reopening completed files to match a later form would falsify the account.
A word on where this page sits. These are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents, made available by an independent site with no official role and no authority to issue forms. The structure described above — proponent, prescribing directive, records schedule — exists apart from this site entirely, which is why nothing written here is legal advice and why acceptance by any office is not something that can be promised. Put questions of entry, requirement or eligibility to TJAG or to the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 1574-2?
- REPORT OF PROCEEDINGS BY BOARD OF OFFICERS
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2016
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TJAG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA