Military Forms Guide

DA Form 7419-1 — Family Advocacy Program (FAP)

family advocacy program (fap)

Every entry on DA Form 7419-1 exists because a record system needs it in writing. The form's official title is Family Advocacy Program (FAP), and it is raised whenever an office must family advocacy program (fap) in a way that survives the departure of everyone involved. Memory does not transfer between assignments; a filed document does. The edition dated August 2007, status not stated, is what stands here, spread across 15 page(s) and about 200 fields — a count that reflects how much detail the receiving system requires, not how much the drafter wishes to give.

The form has an author and an occasion, held by different authorities. ACSIM owns the content and reshapes it when what is being recorded changes. AR 608-1 governs the event that calls for the form and the route the finished document takes afterwards. Keeping those two apart is what allows a procedure to be amended without the page being rebuilt each time.

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.

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.

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

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.

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. The xfdl file is IBM Lotus Forms, carried in Army systems for the routing and signature support it provides, which is why the Lotus Forms Viewer is its only reader.

There is no charge and no sign-up. Published documents are distributed as published, without modification.

What the form asks for

  • CHECK1
  • CHECK10
  • CHECK11
  • CHECK12
  • CHECK13
  • CHECK14
  • CHECK15
  • CHECK16
  • CHECK17
  • CHECK2
  • CHECK3
  • CHECK4
  • CHECK5
  • CHECK6
  • CHECK7
  • CHECK8
  • CHECK9
  • Comment_1
  • ContentArea1
  • FIELD1
  • FIELD2
  • FIELD3
  • FIELD4
  • FIELD5

Where the signed form goes is settled by AR 608-1 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.

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.

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 ACSIM or to the administrative office servicing your unit.

Questions and answers

What is DA Form 7419-1?
Family Advocacy Program (FAP)
Which edition is current?
August 2007
Who is responsible for this form?
ACSIM
In which formats can it be downloaded?
PDF, XFDL

Other forms in the series