So what is DD Form 1208? The short answer: a Defense Department document, officially DD Form 1208, Specific-Gravity Tests, December 1999, used to Specific Gravity Tests. Anything else you need follows from that.
Will you need a different form because of where you serve? No. DD forms are Department-wide instruments, and that scope is what separates them from service publications. One edition, all branches, defense agencies included.
Who is behind it? not stated maintains the form, and not stated is the publication that requires it. Those two names answer most questions about why you are being asked to submit anything at all.
How current is this? Edition not stated, publisher status not stated. That is the version described throughout this page.
What the form asks for
- 1. Project.
- 2. Date.
- 3. Boring number.
- 4. Job number.
- 5. Excavation number.
- 6. Specific gravity of solids. Flask calibration data. a. Flask number.
- b. Clean, dry weight (grams).
- c. Flask plus water weight (grams).
- d. Observed temperature (degrees Celsius).
- Determination data. f. Dish number, column 1.
- Dish number, column 2.
- Dish number, column 3.
- g. Weight of dish + dry soil (grams), column 2.
- g. Weight of dish + dry soil (grams), column 3.
- h. Weight of dish (grams), column 2.
- h. Weight of dish (grams), column 3.
- h. Weight of dish (grams), column 1.
- i. Weight of dry soil (Ws) (grams), column 2.
- i. Weight of dry soil (Ws) (grams), column 3.
- i. Weight of dry soil (Ws) (grams), column 1.
- j. Weight of flask + water + immersed soil (Wbws) (grams), column 2.
- j. Weight of flask + water + immersed soil (Wbws) (grams), column 3.
- k. Temperature of water (Tx) (degrees Celsius), column 2.
- k. Temperature of water (Tx) (degrees Celsius), column 1.
Download the form
Which files are here? These: PDF. How much work is involved? 1 pages, about 87 entry fields.
Fillable or printable — which do you have? Click inside a box. If it accepts a cursor and typed text, the file is fillable and your entries save with it. If nothing happens, the pdf is flat, and the only way forward is printing it and writing on paper.
Is handwriting acceptable? Yes, but it is the weaker choice. Scanning flattens pen strokes and reproduction blurs them, while typed characters survive the whole chain intact. Print in capitals if you are working from a paper blank.
Is xfdl worth downloading? Only if you have the viewer. The format comes from IBM Lotus Forms, which carried Defense form distribution for a long stretch, and no ordinary pdf application will read it.
Do you pay for these? No. Free download, every format. What should you avoid? Filling the form inside a browser tab; the fields frequently do not save.
Can you skip around the form? Better not to. The layout runs identification, then content, then certification, and entries near the bottom frequently take their meaning from what sits above them.
What is the first thing to check? The edition date on the face of the form. Does it read not stated? If not, the copy is superseded, and a superseded DD form is a real problem: Department-level revisions replace the blank for every service at once, so an old file on a shared drive is stale everywhere, not just in your office.
What if a specific field still puzzles you? Read the instructions printed on the form, then not stated. Which wins if they differ? The directive.
Who receives it? The office not stated designates, subject to whatever local instruction your organization adds. What do you keep? A copy, made before the form leaves your hands.
What if DD Form 1208 points to another form? Search the series and number. Because the DD sequence is common to every military department, no branch qualifier is needed to land on the right file.
Why do some instructions cite both a DA and a DD form? Because the procedure touches both systems, not because the forms are related. Service forms answer to a service proponent; DD forms answer to not stated or another Department office. The sequences were never aligned.
Should you archive this file and reuse it next year? Better not. Forms are revised as directives are reissued, as data requirements shift and as statutory notice text is updated, and none of that reaches you directly. Download fresh, check the edition date.
Will your completed form be accepted? That is not a question this page can answer. What you have here is a published Department of Defense document, a description of it and instructions for filling it out. Nothing on the page is legal advice, and nothing here determines what any office does with a submission. Where do the remaining questions go? To not stated, to your servicing personnel office, or to the office named in not stated.
Questions and answers
- What is DD Form 1208?
- DD Form 1208, Specific-Gravity Tests, December 1999
- Which edition is current?
- Not stated by the publisher
- Who is responsible for this form?
- Not stated
- In which formats can it be downloaded?