DA DD Forms Answers

DA Form 1991 — STOCK RECORD CARD

stock record card

A newer edition of this form has been issued (01/01/2026). Download the current edition.

What does this form do? DA Form 1991 is titled STOCK RECORD CARD, and its job is to stock record card. Anyone sent to find "the 1991" is being sent here. Everything below expands on that one function.

Am I looking at the right edition? The copy here carries the date 01/01/2026 and the status ACTIVE. Forms in the DA series are identified by edition date rather than by revision number, so that date is what you compare against. One correction: a newer edition now exists. This one is superseded and remains available only for reference and for files already executed on it.

Do I fill this in myself? Usually yes, unless an administrative office keeps the record for you, in which case they enter what you supply. The form itself belongs to G-1 and is prescribed by AR 215-1, AR 215-5. It runs to 1 page(s) and about 200 fields.

What the form asks for

  • BALAN_A
  • BALAN_A_1
  • BALAN_A_10
  • BALAN_A_11
  • BALAN_A_12
  • BALAN_A_2
  • BALAN_A_3
  • BALAN_A_4
  • BALAN_A_5
  • BALAN_A_6
  • BALAN_A_7
  • BALAN_A_8
  • BALAN_A_9
  • BALAN_B
  • BALAN_B_1
  • BALAN_B_10
  • BALAN_B_11
  • BALAN_B_12
  • BALAN_B_2
  • BALAN_B_3
  • BALAN_B_4
  • BALAN_B_5
  • BALAN_B_6
  • BALAN_B_7

Download the form

What file types are offered? PDF, XFDL. The page image is the same in every one of them; only the way you complete it changes from format to format.

Fillable or printable — which do I want? Fillable, if there is a keyboard involved: the boxes are interactive objects that store text. Printable, if there is a pen involved: the boxes are just lines on paper. Nothing else distinguishes them.

Which application should I use? Reading takes nothing beyond a browser. Filling takes a proper pdf reader, since browser viewers vary in whether they retain what you type — verify with a single field and a save before you fill the whole form. What is xfdl? The IBM Lotus Forms format used inside Army systems. It requires the Lotus Forms Viewer; nothing else opens it.

Does the download cost anything? No. There is no charge, no account and no email address to surrender, and the file you receive is the published document with nothing added to it.

Where do you start? At the top of the page, with the identifying entries: name as your official records spell it, identification number, unit or organisation, date of preparation. Why first? Because those entries are what the form is filed and searched under later, and a record indexed on a misspelled name is a record nobody retrieves.

How do you move through the fields? By tab, not by mouse. The tab order was fixed when the form was built and generally follows the reading order of the page, so following it is the simplest way to avoid skipping a box. What about check boxes? Click them. If a group is exclusive, your new selection clears the old one — that is the design, not a malfunction.

Why does my text vanish when I print? Because one-line fields have no wrap, and anything past the field width is truncated on paper even though the screen shows all of it. Where should the overflow go? Into remarks, or onto a continuation. What about entries that do not apply? Enter the mark meaning "none". Blank space is ambiguous; a reviewer cannot tell an omission from a considered nil.

When do you sign? Last, after every other entry is settled. Until the signature is applied the document is a draft, however complete it looks. What if more than one signature is required? Reviewing official, approving authority and witness sign in the order the blocks print, and each dates the form on the day of signing rather than the day it was prepared. What goes wrong most often? Mandatory fields left empty, transposed digits in identification numbers, dates with day and month reversed, and old entries surviving in a working copy that was reused instead of a fresh blank form.

Why does the form carry a Privacy Act statement? Because personal information is being collected, and the statement declares the authority, the purpose, who else routinely sees the data, and whether answering is required or optional. Is it worth reading? Read it before you fill the fields it governs, not after. Does it change how you keep the file? It should — a filled copy is a personal record and gets the handling such records receive.

What happens after signing? The form is routed as the prescribing directive requires: to a named office, through the unit administrative channel, or into the personal file. Do you get the original back? No, so make a copy first. Who sets the retention period? The applicable records schedule, not the office holding the document.

What if this form is not the only one you need? Search by series and number. Within the DA series, forms under the same proponent or the same prescribing directive tend to be required as a set, and anything named on the face of one normally accompanies it. Are continuations part of that? They are, along with covers and transmittals, and all of them are collected in advance rather than after a query.

Why do editions change? Because the proponent revises the content, and the edition date printed on the page marks the result. How do you tell whether a stored copy is still current? Compare its printed date against the edition in force before you use it again. Does a new edition invalidate what you already filed? No. Records executed under a superseded edition stand as they are.

Who publishes these files? This site does, as copies of published Department of the Army forms offered for download. Is there any official connection? None — the site is independent of the Department of the Army and issues nothing itself. Will a given office accept your document? That is not something anyone here can state, and none of this page is legal advice. Where do you take a specific question? To G-1, or to the administrative office that services your unit.

Questions and answers

What is DA Form 1991?
STOCK RECORD CARD
Which edition is current?
01/01/2026
Who is responsible for this form?
G-1
In which formats can it be downloaded?
PDF, XFDL, PDF

Other forms in the series