The reason DA Form 7655 looks the way it does is that a file has to speak for itself. Officially ARMED FORCES EYE AND VISION READINESS SUMMARY, it serves to armed forces eye and vision readiness summary, and the record it produces outlasts the people and the circumstances behind it. Edition 06/01/2015, status ACTIVE, is the version published here: 1 page(s), close to 155 fields, each one present because some later reader will need that fact without being able to ask for it. Because a subsequent edition has appeared, this copy stays available — a record made under one edition is interpreted under that edition.
Two offices stand behind the form, and the distinction between them explains most of what follows. TSG is the proponent: it decides what the form asks and revises it when the underlying process changes. PAM 40-506 is the prescribing authority: it decides when the form is raised at all and where the completed document travels. Content and occasion are separated deliberately, so that a change in procedure does not require redesigning the page.
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.
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
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.
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
- BRANCHOFSERV
- CHECK1
- CHECK2
- CHECK3
- CHECK4
- CHECK5
- CHECK6
- CORBOTH
- CORBTH
- CORLT
- CORRT
- ContentArea1
- DATEOFBIRTH
- DATEPRESCRIP
- DOCADD
- DOCNAME
- DOCSIGN
- DTVS
- FIELD1
- FIELD2
- FIELD3
- LTADD
- LTAXIS
- LTCYL
Disposition is prescribed, not chosen. PAM 40-506 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.
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.
It is worth being plain about what this page is within all of the above. The files are reproductions of published Department of the Army documents, offered for download by a site with no official standing and no part in issuing anything. That matters because the machinery described here — proponency, prescribing directives, records schedules — runs entirely elsewhere. Nothing written here is legal advice, and no statement can be made about whether an office will accept a given document. TSG and the administrative office servicing your unit answer questions of entry, requirement and eligibility, and they are the ones positioned to.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7655?
- ARMED FORCES EYE AND VISION READINESS SUMMARY
- Which edition is current?
- 06/01/2015
- Who is responsible for this form?
- TSG
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF
Publisher notes
- 42-ITEM ONLY PRODUCED IN ELECTRONIC MEDIA,