Administrative documents are written for readers who were not present, and DA Form 7870 is no exception. Titled MINIMUM ALTITUDE/MINIMUM VECTORING ALTITUDE OBSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION, it is used to minimum altitude/minimum vectoring altitude obstruction documentation — a transaction that means little in conversation and a great deal in a file. The published edition here carries the date 10/01/2019 and the status ACTIVE. Its 1 page(s) and roughly 200 fields are sized to what the record must prove years later, which is always more than the moment appears to need.
Behind any Army form sit two separate decisions. What the document asks is settled by T2COM, which maintains and revises it. Whether you raise it, and where it goes once signed, is settled by TC 3-04.15. 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.
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.
A signature is what converts entries into a record, which is why it comes last and why an unsigned form remains a draft however complete it looks. Where a reviewing official, an approving authority or a witness also signs, each adds a distinct attestation, and each dates the day of signing rather than the day of preparation — the dates trace the sequence of responsibility. The recurring defects are worth knowing precisely because they defeat that purpose: an empty mandatory field leaves an obligation unmet, transposed identification digits attach the record to nobody, a date with day and month reversed puts events in the wrong order, and entries left in a reused working copy assert facts nobody intended.
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
Why several files for one page? Because the form has to be completed in a headquarters and in places without a workstation, and PDF covers both. The fillable pdf holds interactive fields that fix each entry in place and remove handwriting from the equation. The printable pdf is the same layout without those fields, meant for a printer and a pen. Neither is a lesser copy of the other; each answers a condition the other cannot.
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.
Downloads are free and unregistered. The material was published for general use, and the files are passed on unaltered.
What the form asks for
- Area1
- Area10
- Area11
- Area12
- Area13
- Area14
- Area15
- Area2
- Area3
- Area4
- Area5
- Area6
- Area7
- Area8
- Area9
- Controlling_Obstruction1
- Controlling_Obstruction10
- Controlling_Obstruction11
- Controlling_Obstruction12
- Controlling_Obstruction13
- Controlling_Obstruction14
- Controlling_Obstruction15
- Controlling_Obstruction2
- Controlling_Obstruction3
The routing in TC 3-04.15 decides where the document goes — a named office, the administrative channel, or the individual's file — and the records schedule for the series decides how long it stays. Neither is a local judgement, because a record system loses its meaning if each office keeps things for its own preferred interval. Copy the form before submitting it.
Forms cluster by series and number for the same reason files do: shared proponency and a shared prescribing directive usually mean a shared process. So a document in the DA series referenced on the face of another is generally part of the same transaction, and continuation sheets, cover sheets and transmittals belong to the package from the outset rather than arriving after a query.
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 T2COM or your servicing administrative office.
Questions and answers
- What is DA Form 7870?
- MINIMUM ALTITUDE/MINIMUM VECTORING ALTITUDE OBSTRUCTION DOCUMENTATION
- Which edition is current?
- 10/01/2019
- Who is responsible for this form?
- T2COM
- In which formats can it be downloaded?
- PDF, PDF