DD Form 1797 occupies a particular place in Defense recordkeeping. Its title is DD Form 1797, Personal Property Counseling Checklist, September 1998, and it exists to Personal Property Counseling Checklist. 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.
The practical effect of Department-level issue is interoperability. not stated establishes the requirement across the Defense enterprise; not stated keeps the document current for all of it. No service maintains its own variant, which means a completed record travels between components — service to agency, agency to joint command — and arrives in a format the receiving office already knows how to read.
You are looking for edition not stated, listed as not stated. Department-wide supersession is a single event rather than a rollout, which is what distinguishes edition currency on a DD form from the same question on a service publication: nobody anywhere is still accepting the previous version out of habit.
The form is laid out top to bottom in a sequence that reflects how the record will be read, not merely how it was drawn. Identification comes first because everything below it is understood in relation to a named person, unit or transaction; substantive entries follow; certification closes the document because certification attests to what precedes it. Filling out of order tends to produce internal inconsistencies — an entry that made sense before the header was settled and does not afterward.
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.
Unclear entries are resolved from the printed instructions first and from not stated where the two texts diverge.
Download the form
The set published here is PDF, covering 2 pages with roughly 106 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
- 7 Checklist, Part I Household Goods. 1. Mark X for entitlements under the order described above (number of shipments, authorized destination, et cetera)
- 2. Mark X for weight allowances.
- Weight allowance for P. C. S.
- Weight allowance for T. D. Y.
- 3. Mark X for weight restriction at new duty station, if any
- 4. Mark X for member's responsibility to reimburse the Government for any excess costs occasioned by this shipment or shipments
- 5. Mark X for pickup date and required delivery date as determined by requirements of the member.
- Pickup date.
- Required delivery date.
- 6. Mark X for mode or method of shipment, including name of carrier if known
- 7. Mark X for unauthorized items and disposal of useless items
- 8. Mark X for professional books, papers, and equipment
- 9. Mark X for member's responsibility to prepare and submit a complete DD form 1701, Inventory of Household Goods
- 10. Mark X for servicing or deservicing appliances
- 11. Mark X. for temporary storage, contractual or in transit
- 12. Mark X for checking inventory at origin and destination, noting discrepancies on reverse of P. P. G. B. L.., D D Form 619, and carrier's inventory prior to signing
- 13. Mark X for checking DD form 619 prepared by carrier at origin for complete accuracy of information recorded thereon
- 14. Mark X for member's responsibility to sign delivery documents and release them to carrier immediately upon delivery of property and completion of delivery services and annotation of discrepancies
- 15. Mark X for member's responsibility to contact the destination I. T. O. immediately upon arrival to give a point of contact for the I. T. O. when property arrives
- 16. Mark X for member's responsibility to contact origin and destination I. T. O. if there is any change in orders or there are other factors that could affect delivery of the shipment
- 17. Mark X. for extra pickup or delivery charges, when applicable
- 18. Mark X for procedure to designate agent to release property or accept property in absence of member and use of Power of Attorney or informal letter of authority
- 19. Mark X for what documentation given to member and its importance to him
- 20. Mark X for member's responsibility to complete and turn in quality control form
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.
Forms referenced inside this one are located by number alone, and that simplicity is a direct product of Department-level numbering. Because the DD sequence is maintained centrally and not duplicated by service, a number is a complete address: one number, one document, throughout the Defense establishment.
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.
A form is downstream of the policy that requires it, and revision usually starts there: a directive is reissued, a collection requirement is altered, notice language is updated by statute. The form is republished as a consequence. Since none of that reaches individual users, an archived copy quietly becomes wrong, and verifying not stated each time you download is the whole remedy.
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 1797?
- DD Form 1797, Personal Property Counseling Checklist, September 1998
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?