DAILY STAFF JOURNAL OR DUTY OFFICER’S LOG (DA Form 1594)
A DA Form 1594 is a United States Army form used to record the daily activities of a military member, recording information about daily training, operational reviews, and historical research.
The DA Form 1594 is available on the United States Army documentation website or can be supplied through the chain of command.
The first boxes that must be filled in are the upper right corner boxes indicating Page Number and Number of Pages.
1. Indicate Page Number 1 for the first sheet, but leave Number of Pages blank until the journal entry is completed.
Next, you will fill out your organization and location for which the journal entry is to be made.
In the boxes on the right, indicate the time period for which your journal entry is covering.
2. Journals are normally used to cover a 24 hour period, however you may use shorter or longer durations depending on the custom of your position and organization.
After the general information is supplied on the top section, you are ready to fill in the grid recording the information for your journal entry.
3. List the entries on the left side, providing a numerical value for each entry.
4. Indicate the time period for each specific entry.
The next box is to be used for indicating the event of the specific entry.
5. Specific events can be a wide range of topics, including incidents, messages, orders, or a host of other events that may have occurred throughout the day.
Next you will supply the action taken in response to the event that occurred in your entry.
6. Your entries should be brief so as to fit in the appropriate boxes.
7. Should your entries require additional space, you may use additional boxes or attach an addendum to the sheet to clarify the events.
Once the sheet is completed, each DA Form 1594 must be certified in the bottom boxes, with the name and rank of the officer and their signature.
8. Keep all DA Form 1594s in a safe place for recording and future reference.