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 scenario.
He reported to Fort Eustis one morning, in 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 is doing this in her unit, she is also preparing and submitting a school application.
While there, he decides to sign on 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 you’re done with all this, you have 15 minutes left for lunch at the 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 done by hand.
block 1 is “date”. Since this is related to the payment, or something that could affect the payment, you want to use the DFAS date format. That is the format “YYYYMMDD”.
Block 2 is “from:” Print or type your unit and the address of your unit.
block 3 is “Retirement Year Ending Date”.
Your retirement year end (RYE) date is based on when your contract with the Army Reserve originally began. This is based on the continuing contract of him. 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 began 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 reserve contract, in a rolling reserve run, determines his RYE.
Review AR 140-185 for retirement year end date details.
Fill in this block using the format “YYYYMMDD”.
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 typically their full-time support staff.
These staff, primarily one of the unit managers, will process your DA 1380.
Write “ask” in all caps in this block. Below, write the address of your unit where support staff are located.
Your support staff will process this for retirement points if you used an “N” code. They will process your DA 1380 for retirement and payment points if you used a “P” code. If your support staff cannot process this at the reserve center, they will send you to S1 Battalion.
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 Write the rating of your country. This is the alphanumeric code for your rank.
block 7 is your branch Enter your “Area of Soldier 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 provides you with the opportunity to check off the type of training, duties, or instruction in which you are involved.
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 get retirement points and pay or just get 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 funeral honors as a member of the funeral detail. A “2” represents two training blocks. He could only get a maximum of “2” per day.
Using the above airborne physical scenario, I would use “N1”. Phase I took the morning and part of lunch to complete, approximately 4 hours. “N1” will give you a retirement point, but will not pay you.
In another scenario, where a soldier performs a full day RST, that day would be marked as “P2”. A “P2” would give you two retirement points and pay for two training blocks or two training days.
Block 9, Column D, list the nature of the duties you performed or the training/instruction you received. For the Airborne Physical scenario, you could put, “Airborne Physical, Phase I, at Fort Eustis, VA. Withdrawal points only.”
For the RST scenario, an example of the description might be “Rescheduled Training (RST) to make up for the battle mount lost on October 25, 2014.” The second day of RST would go on the following line, with the same information assuming a full day of training was recovered. The comment along this line could read: “Rescheduled Training (RST) to make up for the lost battle mount on October 26, 2014.
This scenario assumes that the soldier did two days of RST to make up for the two days of drill missed.
block 10 is a typed name, grade, and position of the officer/NCO/officer who observed you, or knew you performed duties in DA 1380. The names of the 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 the Human Resources Command (HRC). Present it to the office that manages your payment, records and points.
2. If you are assigned to a unit and submit this form directly to their Regional Personal Action Center (RPPAC) or HRC, you are contributing to their overwhelming feeling. 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 and complete a course to get paid, complete a DA 1380 for the course you just completed. Send a certificate of completion and the completed DA 1380 to those who manage your records. Please check with your unit for specific policies that cover this.
4. Depending on Army Reserve and unit 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 get paid, please bring a certificate and a completed DA 1380 with you to your unit.
5. If your unit puts 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 have 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.
