Every entry on DA Form 1704-R exists because a record system needs it in writing. The form's official title is PAROLE STATEMENT (LRA), and it is raised whenever an office must parole statement (lra) in a way that survives the departure of everyone involved. Memory does not transfer between assignments; a filed document does. The edition dated 02/01/1972, status ACTIVE, is what stands here, spread across 1 page(s) and about 70 fields — a count that reflects how much detail the receiving system requires, not how much the drafter wishes to give.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by PMG, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by (FM 3-19.40). 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.
Much of the form's behaviour follows from its being a fixed page. Tab order was set at build time along the reading sequence, which is why tabbing catches boxes a pointer passes over. Exclusive groups release one choice when another is made because a record cannot carry two answers to a single question. Single-line fields refuse to wrap because every entry must print where the layout expects it — text beyond the width is lost at the margin, visible on screen to the end. That is what remarks areas and continuation sheets are for. Marking a field that does not apply matters for a related reason: emptiness is ambiguous, and a reviewer reading the file later cannot distinguish an omission from a decision.
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.
Behind the Privacy Act statement is a requirement that anyone asked for personal data be told, in advance, under what authority it is sought, for what purpose, who else routinely sees it, and whether refusal is possible. Reading it after completing the fields defeats its function. And the completed form is itself a personal record from that point on, subject to the handling rules such records carry.
Download the form
Formats exist because completion happens under different conditions, not because anyone wanted variety. The published set is PDF, XFDL. A fillable pdf carries live entry objects, so typed text lands in fixed positions and stays legible whoever reads it later. A printable pdf drops those objects and leaves the page as an image, which is what an office needs where a screen is unavailable and a pen is not. The document itself is unchanged between them; what differs is the circumstance each anticipates.
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. The xfdl file belongs to a different lineage entirely: IBM Lotus Forms, adopted across Army systems for the routing and signature handling built into it. That is why only the Lotus Forms Viewer reads it.
No charge and no account apply: these are published documents, and access to them is not something a distributor is entitled to price.
What the form asks for
- ADVISOR
- BARRACKS
- ContentArea1
- DATE
- DATE_B
- DO_DES_mutexcl
- EMPLYER
- INI_PAR_mutexcl
- L10
- L11
- L12
- L13
- L14
- L15
- L16
- L17
- L18
- L19
- PLANS
- PRISONER
- Page1
- PageArea1
- REASONS
- REG_NUM
Where the signed form goes is settled by (FM 3-19.40) rather than by the office holding it — a named recipient, the unit administrative channel, or the individual's own file, depending on why it was raised. Retention likewise belongs to the records schedule for the series, which exists so documents are kept for as long as anyone might need them and no longer. Keep a copy before release; the original serves the file from then on, not you.
Related documents are located by series and number, and the relation is rarely accidental — forms under one proponent or one directive tend to serve steps of a single procedure. Anything the DA series form names on its face normally travels with it, as do the continuations, covers and transmittals the process generates. Assembling them together is what makes the submission a complete account.
Revision follows the process, which is why editions appear without a fixed interval, and the printed date rather than any version number identifies them. Nothing on a stored copy signals that it has aged; the check is manual. Work already completed under a superseded edition stands as filed, because the record was made under those terms and is properly interpreted under them.
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 PMG or to the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 1704-R?
- PAROLE STATEMENT (LRA)
- Which edition is current?
- 02/01/1972
- Who is responsible for this form?
- PMG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, XFDL, PDF
Publisher notes
- 41-ITEM ALSO PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA,