There are two ways to obtain the DA 1380. One way is through an Internet search. The other way is from your unit. Once you have your DA 1380, how do you get started?
Here is a stage.
He showed up at Fort Eustis one morning, at his aviation medicine, to do his phase 1 airborne physical. Phase 1 takes you all morning to complete. You’re finished in the middle of lunch.
He returns the following week for Phase 2. After Phase 2, he returns to his unit and provides them with copies of his physical flight results. While she does this in her unit, she also prepares and submits a school application.
While there, he decides to sign for the missing field equipment he needs for the upcoming field training exercise. He will see his supply sergeant. Immediately after you sign for the items he needs, he informs you that additional items have arrived for you from the battalion supply.
By the time he’s done with all this, he’s got 15 minutes left for lunch at DFAC.
How would I record this scenario on a DA 1380?
If you have a fillable DA 1380 form, open it. If you have a blank copy, make another copy and complete it in pencil. Use a black pen on the actual copy for a clean finish if doing it by hand.
Block 1 is “date”. Since this is payment related, or something that could affect payment, you want to use the DFAS date format. That is the “YYYYMMDD” format.
Block 2 is “from:” Print or type your unit and the address of your unit.
block 3 is “Retirement Year End Date.”
Your Retirement Year End (RYE) date is based on when your contract with the Army Reserve originally began. This is based on his continuing contract. For example, his booking contract started on November 1st. His RYE will be on October 31 of the following year.
Let’s say you were on active duty before that, from April 1, 2010 to October 31, 2014. Your reserve contract started on November 1, 2014, the day after the last day of your active contract. His current RYE would still be October 31, 2015, not March 31, 2015, because his initial active reservation contract, in a rolling reservation run, determines his RYE.
Review AR 140-185 for details of the retirement year end date.
Fill in this block using the “YYYYMMDD” format.
Block 4 is the “a” block. This will be the address of the staff updating your record. For soldiers in the Troop Program Unit (TPU), this is usually their full-time support staff.
This staff, primarily one of the unit administrators, will process your DA 1380.
Write “ask” in all caps in this block. Below, write the address of your unit where the support staff is located.
Your support staff will process this for retirement points if you used an “N” code. They will process your DA 1380 for retirement points and pay if you used a “P” code. If your support staff can’t process this at the reserve center, they will send it to Battalion S1.
If you are an Individual Mobilization Augmentation (IMA), or a member of the Individual Ready Reserves (IRR), you will use the HRC address for the office that updates your records.
Block 5 is your name. Write your name on the block in the order shown on the block label.
Block 6 it’s your grade. Type your country rating. This is the alphanumeric code for your rank.
Block 7 is your branch. Enter your “Soldier’s Area of Concentration” (AOC) / Major Military Occupational Skill (MOS) code in this block.
block 8 it is left blank unless block 4 is different from the allocation unit.
block 9 gives you the opportunity to check off the type of training, duties, or instruction you are involved in.
If you choose “other”, write the description in the box next to “other”.
Block 9, Column A, is the date you participated in the training. If the day, month, and year are in separate columns, use the format DD MM YYYY respectively within the day, month, and year columns.
Block 9, Column BPlease list the hours of training you completed.
Block 9, Column C, are the retirement points you earned. There are two different codes to dial if you earn retirement points and pay or just earn retirement points.
An “N” code marks unpaid time. You only get retirement points. In the “P” code that marks paid time, you get both the retirement point credit and the pay.
A “1” right next to one of the letter codes represents a 4-hour training block; 2 hours if you participated in the funeral honors as a member of the funeral party. A “2” represents two training blocks. He could only get a maximum of “2” per day.
Using the physical airborne scenario above, I would use “N1”. Phase I took the morning and part of lunch to complete, approximately 4 hours. “N1” will give you one retirement point, but will not pay you.
In another scenario, where a soldier performs a full day RST, that day would be marked “P2”. A “P2” would give you two retirement points and pay for two training blocks or two days of training.
Block 9, Column D, list the nature of the duties you performed or the training/instruction you received. For the airborne physical scenario, you might put, “Airborne physical, Phase I, at Fort Eustis, VA. Retreat points only.”
For the RST scenario, an example of the description might be “Rescheduled Training (RST) to make up for the lost battle mount on October 25, 2014.” The second day of RST would go on the next line, with the same information assuming a full day of training was made up. The comment on this line could say: “Rescheduled training (RST) to make up for battle mount lost on October 26, 2014.
This scenario assumes that the soldier did two days of RST to make up for the two days missed of drill.
Block 10 is a written name, grade, and title of the officer/NCO/officer who observed you, or knew you performed duties at DA 1380. The names of support staff members who observed you are common entries for block 10 and block 11
block 11 is the signature of the soldier or qualified official listed in block 10.
Some additional notes:
1. If you are assigned to a unit, please submit this form to your unit. If you are assigned to the IRR or IMA, please submit this form to Human Resources Command (HRC). Present it at the office that manages your payment, records and points.
2. If you are assigned to a unit and submit this form directly to your Regional Personnel Action Center (RPPAC) or HRC, you are contributing to their overwhelm. This reduces your ability to do your own assigned mission.
3. Use a DA 1380 to cover one month. If your training event overlaps two months, please submit two DA 1380s, one covering each month.
3. Do not complete a DA 1380 for your Army correspondence courses/computer-based courses if you complete them on your own.
If your commander authorized you, in writing, to enroll in a course and complete it for pay, complete a DA 1380 for the course you just completed. Submit a certificate of completion and completed DA 1380 to those who manage your records. Check with your unit for specific policies that cover this.
4. Depending on your unit and Army Reserve funding, you may be paid to do your structured development courses on your own. Check your unit’s policy on this. If this applies to you, and you want to be paid, bring a certificate and completed DA 1380 with you to your unit.
5. If your unit places you on AT orders to complete your structured development courses, then you only get paid for your AT orders. Use the certificate as documentation that you completed the course.
Additional references:
1. AR 140-185, Retirement Year and Retirement Points
2. Army Human Resources Command, “How to Earn Retirement Points.”
3. Office of the Chief, Army Reserve, Memo dated February 10, 2014, on the use of DA 1380 to award retirement points.