Every entry on DA Form 3286-79 exists because a record system needs it in writing. The form's official title is STATEMENTS FOR REENLISTMENT, and it is raised whenever an office must statements for reenlistment in a way that survives the departure of everyone involved. Memory does not transfer between assignments; a filed document does. The edition dated 04/01/2023, status ACTIVE, is what stands here, spread across 1 page(s) and about 99 fields — a count that reflects how much detail the receiving system requires, not how much the drafter wishes to give. A later edition has since been published, which is why this one remains: records executed against it must still be readable in the terms they were written.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by G-1, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by AR 601-280. That division is the reason a form can outlive several changes in the process it serves.
Retrieval governs the order of entry. The head of the form takes name, identification number, unit and date, and those values become the handles by which the record is found later — the substantive blocks are never searched on. This is why the spelling must match official records exactly rather than approximately.
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.
Signing is the act that makes the document evidence, and until it happens the entries are only a proposal. Additional signatures — reviewer, approver, witness — each stand for a separate judgement, dated when applied so the record shows who accepted what and in what order. The common faults all damage that record in the same way: a blank mandatory field breaks the chain of required answers, swapped digits in an identification number detach the document from its subject, an inverted day and month misplaces it in time, and stale data from a reused copy states things nobody meant to state.
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
Formats exist because completion happens under different conditions, not because anyone wanted variety. The published set is PDF. 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.
Downloads are free and unregistered. The material was published for general use, and the files are passed on unaltered.
What the form asks for
- AA_No
- AA_Yes
- Assignment
- BA_No
- BA_Yes
- CA_No
- CA_Yes
- ContentArea1
- CurrentPage
- DA_No
- DA_Yes
- Date2
- Date3
- Date_Place
- Disposition
- EA_No
- EA_Yes
- FA_No
- FA_Yes
- In_Svc_Reenlistment
- Initial_Function
- Initial_Ratee_Signature
- Item
- Line1
Where the signed form goes is settled by AR 601-280 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 G-1 or to the administrative office servicing your unit.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 3286-79?
- STATEMENTS FOR REENLISTMENT
- Which edition is current?
- 04/01/2023
- Who is responsible for this form?
- G-1
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- , PRIVACY ACT STATEMENT