The reason DA Form 1696 looks the way it does is that a file has to speak for itself. Officially ENLISTMENT/REENLISTMENT QUALIFYING APPLICATION, it serves to enlistment/reenlistment qualifying application (specially recruited personnel), and the record it produces outlasts the people and the circumstances behind it. Edition April 2005, status not stated, is the version published here: 2 page(s), close to 200 fields, each one present because some later reader will need that fact without being able to ask for it.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by DCS, G-1, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by AR 601-210. That division is the reason a form can outlive several changes in the process it serves.
The heading blocks come first because the record is retrieved by them, not read into. Name as official records spell it, identification number, unit, date of preparation — those four are the index, and everything below them is content that only surfaces once the index has done its work. A form filed under a name written casually is not lost in principle, only in practice, which amounts to the same thing.
The rules of entry all trace back to the page being fixed in advance. Tabbing follows the order built into the form, which usually matches how the page reads and misses less than clicking. An exclusive group discards the earlier selection because contradictory entries would make the record unusable. One-line fields have no wrap because print positions are predetermined, so an overlong entry displays fully and prints truncated. Longer text goes to the remarks area or a continuation, both provided for exactly that. Where nothing applies, the nil mark is entered — a blank leaves the reader unable to tell a considered answer from a skipped one.
The signature is the point at which entries become an assertion someone stands behind, so it follows everything else and its absence leaves a draft. Countersignatures by reviewing, approving or witnessing officials each carry their own weight and are dated at signing, which is how the file preserves the order of responsibility. Seen that way, the familiar errors are not clerical trivia: an unanswered mandatory field, digits transposed in an identification number, day and month reversed, and residue from a reused file each put something false or unresolved into a document that will be relied upon.
Personal information may not be gathered silently, and the Privacy Act statement is how that obligation is met on paper: it names the collection authority, the purpose, the routine uses and whether disclosure is mandatory. Because it exists to inform a decision, it belongs before the fields it covers rather than after them. A filled copy then holds personal data and is stored and transmitted under the corresponding safeguards.
Download the form
The published formats — PDF — reflect the range of places a form gets filled in. Where there is a computer, the fillable pdf supplies live fields that keep entries positioned and readable. Where there is not, the printable pdf gives the identical page as flat artwork for pen entry. The distinction is one of setting rather than of authority; the page is the same document in both.
Where a file opens matters more than it appears to. A browser will display a pdf, but browser viewers were built to read documents, and some accept keystrokes into fields they never intended to store — the entries are gone at tab close, without warning, because saving was never part of what that viewer does. A dedicated reader is built around the file's own structure and keeps what you enter.
There is no charge and no sign-up. Published documents are distributed as published, without modification.
What the form asks for
- AFQT
- CIV_DEG
- CIV_DEG_1
- CIV_DEG_2
- CIV_DEG_3
- CIV_DESC
- CIV_EMP
- CIV_FROM
- CIV_MAJ
- CIV_MAJ_1
- CIV_MAJ_2
- CIV_MAJ_3
- CIV_NAME
- CIV_NAME_1
- CIV_NAME_2
- CIV_NAME_3
- CIV_OTHER
- CIV_TO
- CIV_YEAR
- CIV_YEAR_1
- CIV_YEAR_2
- CIV_YEAR_3
- COMP
- COMP_1
Disposition is prescribed, not chosen. AR 601-210 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.
Series and number are how the DA series signals which documents belong together, and the grouping follows real process boundaries: a shared proponent or directive usually means a shared purpose. A form cited on the face of another is part of that same transaction, and continuation sheets, covers and transmittals complete it.
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.
One boundary should be stated clearly. What is distributed here are copies of published Department of the Army forms; the site is independent, issues nothing of its own, and holds no position in the system it describes. Proponency, prescribing directives and retention schedules operate without reference to it. Consequently nothing here is legal advice and no assurance about acceptance is possible. Questions about a particular entry, a requirement or eligibility belong with DCS, G-1 or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 1696?
- ENLISTMENT/REENLISTMENT QUALIFYING APPLICATION
- Which edition is current?
- April 2005
- Who is responsible for this form?
- DCS, G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?