DD Form 1793 occupies a particular place in Defense recordkeeping. Its title is DD Form 1793, Determination of Asphalt Content, February 1971., and it exists to Determination of Asphalt Content. What the DD prefix records is an administrative judgment made long before your copy was printed: this transaction was determined to be common to the whole Department rather than peculiar to one service, and so the documentation of it was standardized at Department level.
This is why the arrangement matters to you rather than only to the archivists. not stated governs the form throughout the Department, with not stated as the responsible office, so the record you create is legible outside your own component. Joint assignments, agency details and cross-service transactions all depend on that: the paperwork does not have to be reconstructed each time it crosses a boundary.
Current edition: not stated, status not stated. Understand why that date is worth attention here. When the Department reissues a form, the replacement takes effect across every component simultaneously, so an older copy is not merely locally out of date — it is out of date in every office that might receive it.
Work down the page in the printed order, and understand why the order exists. The identifying block establishes whose record this is and under what circumstances it arises. The body of the form then answers questions that are only meaningful once that context is fixed. The signature block comes last because a certification signed before the entries are complete certifies nothing.
Verify the printed edition against not stated first. Field structure shifts between editions, and the office that receives your record is reading the current one. That office may sit outside your service, which removes even the informal accommodation you might expect from a colleague who used the old version last month.
Where a specific field is genuinely unclear, the instructions printed on the form come first and not stated governs where the two do not agree.
Download the form
The set published here is PDF, covering 1 pages with roughly 41 fields. More than one format survives because the Department serves users under very different conditions, from a desk with current software to a location where a printer is the only reliable output.
Two states of the same page circulate, and the reason is worth knowing. In the fillable pdf, the boxes are real fields holding real data; in the printable pdf, the boxes are drawings. Where a record will cross components — as Department records regularly do — the typed version is the safer artifact. Each scan, each forwarding, each reproduction costs handwriting a little legibility, and the office that finally files the record is rarely the office that received it first.
What the form asks for
- Project.
- Date.
- 1. Weight of original sample and tare (grams), column 2.
- 2. Weight of tare (grams), column 2.
- 3. Weight of original sample (line 1 minus line 2) (grams), column 1.
- 3. Weight of original sample (line 1 minus line 2) (grams), column 2.
- 4. Weight of clean aggregate and tare (grams), column 1.
- 4. Weight of clean aggregate and tare (grams), column 2.
- 2. Weight of tare (grams), column 1.
- 5. Weight of tare (grams), column 2.
- 5. Weight of tare (grams), column 1.
- 6. Weight of clean aggregate (line 4 minus line 5) (grams), column 1.
- 6. Weight of clean aggregate (line 4 minus line 5) (grams), column 2.
- 1. Weight of original sample and tare (grams), column 1.
- 7. Final weight of filter paper (grams), column 2.
- 8. Initial weight of filter paper (grams), column 1.
- 8. Initial weight of filter paper (grams), column 2.
- 7. Final weight of filter paper (grams), column 1.
- 9. Weight of filler in filter paper (grams), column 2.
- 10. Total amount of solvent (cubic centimeters), column 2.
- 10. Total amount of solvent (cubic centimeters), column 1.
- 11. Amount of solvent evaporated and ignited (cubic centimeters), column 1.
- 11. Amount of solvent evaporated and ignited (cubic centimeters), column 2.
- 9. Weight of filler in filter paper (grams), column 1.
Route the executed form as not stated or local guidance directs, and retain a duplicate first. Cross-component routing is ordinary for DD forms, which is precisely why a personal copy earns its keep: the receiving office may belong to an organization you have no standing to query about a missing document.
Cross-referenced documents are found by series and number, with nothing further required. That the DD sequence is unified across the Department means a cited number identifies one form and no other, which is the practical payoff of centralizing the numbering in the first place.
Procedures that touch both Department and service processes will cite forms from both sequences, and the coincidence of numbers between them is exactly that — coincidence. An Army proponent maintains the DA series for the Army; not stated or another Department office maintains the DD series for the whole Department. Two independent registries, two independent numbering runs, no correspondence at any value.
Understanding why editions change explains why checking them is not optional. Revision follows directive reissue, changes in what data is required, and amendments to mandatory notice text — decisions made at Department level and communicated through publication rather than notification. The file you saved does not update itself, so the edition date at download is what you rely on.
The role of this page is narrow and worth stating plainly. It makes a published Defense form available and explains its structure. It does not advise, does not interpret policy for your circumstances, and cannot indicate how any office will treat a completed copy — those judgments rest with the authorities that own the process. Direct such questions to not stated, to the administrative office that services you, or to the authority named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1793?
- DD Form 1793, Determination of Asphalt Content, February 1971.
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?