Change in Militray ID card

[mickeyd]

The plan is to move to an ID card that would print only the last four digits of the SSAN, with the full SSAN electronically encrypted on the card. This would provide additional protection to the individual members while still preserving data deemed essential for hundreds of purposes, from validating commissary check purchases to confirming the identities of prisoners of war.
The reason for the multi-year phase-out is to allow time to convert the large numbers of hardware and software systems to conform to the new card, and also to allow a phased replacement of more than three million ID cards of current members, retirees, family members, and survivors so ID card facilities aren’t overwhelmed.​

Received this from MOAA recently. Why it has taken so long for them to get on board with the idea that the use on the SSN (SSAN) on an ID card is not a good idea any more is beyond me.​

 

[W2R]

Me too. They took our social security number off of our Department of the Interior ID cards about seven years ago, if my recollection is correct. I remember back in 2000, they used "white-out" on my ID card to obscure the SSN until new cards could be made.

 

[Nords]

Received this from MOAA recently. Why it has taken so long for them to get on board with the idea that the use on the SSN (SSAN) on an ID card is not a good idea any more is beyond me.

My spouse's fitness reports still have her social security number and that of her reporting senior. I understand that BUPERS has changed some of those rules, but I doubt there's much incentive to stop the practice.

Just pumping out "common access card" chipped ID cards for the active-duty folks took about five years. I can't imagine how much longer it's going to take to corral all the retirees... oh, wait, I bet they do it when we have to renew our ID cards as part of signing up for Medicare.

 

[FinallyRetired]

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched to social security numbers? (I don't). I wonder why they don't revert to those? The service numbers could be matched with social security numbers when needed.

 

[REWahoo]

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched to social security numbers?

Not me. The switch happened a few months before my time:

The U.S. military services discontinued using the service number as an identifier and began using the social security number on the following dates:

Branch of Service Date of Changeover
Army and Air Force - July 1, 1969
Navy and Marine Corps - January 1, 1972
Coast Guard - October 1, 1974

 

[mickeyd]

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched

I actually do remember mine. I was enlisted for about 10 months before I was commissioned in 1967 so I have two of them. Good idea to go back to them and dump the SSN.

BTW, it is such a good idea that the pentagon would never consider it.

 

[Brat]

My 69+ yo husband has to pull out his SS card to provide the number, but ask him for his military ID and he spouts it out in a nano-second.

 

[Nords]

I actually do remember mine. I was enlisted for about 10 months before I was commissioned in 1967 so I have two of them. Good idea to go back to them and dump the SSN.
BTW, it is such a good idea that the pentagon would never consider it.

Glad I missed those days. I had enough trouble remembering my POW Q&A before we went out on missions...

By the time I was on my third-generation reactor plant I noticed that most of the operating parameters had changed by a factor of two or one-half. I used to get away with that rule of thumb about 90% of the time because I just couldn't remember all the nuclear Trivial Pursuit anymore.

But for some weird muscle-memory reason I can still operate all the buttons & knobs on the Type 18 periscope in total darkness. Now that U.S. subs are being built with non-penetrating periscopes, it's another totally useless skill that no doubt will impress the heck outta the great-grandkids...

 

[OAG]

Yeah, I remember them all: Enlisted RA #, Warrant Officer: USAR #, Regular Army Warrant Officer R# and then SSAN (as they used to say; I think it has morphed to SSN now). BTW I was in the Army AD when they converted from SN's to the SSAN on all personnel records and reports. It was a loooong drawn out conversion, lots of errors, lots of misrouted and lost stuff, took a good 5 years to get to about a 99% accuracy rate. Going back would be really hard as MOST now on AD NEVER had a Military Service Number to begin with.

 

[REWahoo]

I had enough trouble remembering my POW Q&A before we went out on missions...

...it's another totally useless skill that no doubt will impress the heck outta the great-grandkids...

You're assuming they'll give a $hit about what ggpa did way back in the Cold War, are you? Based on my experience with what will be their parents' generation, you might get better response by telling those "there I was" tales to your bunny.

 

[Nords]

Based on my experience with what will be their parents' generation, you might get better response by telling those "there I was" tales to your bunny.

.

 

[packrat44]

Just pumping out "common access card" chipped ID cards for the active-duty folks took about five years. I can't imagine how much longer it's going to take to corral all the retirees... oh, wait, I bet they do it when we have to renew our ID cards as part of signing up for Medicare.

In my opinion the CAC is the logically way to go. That is probably why the government will go a different route.

Trivia question: who remembers their old service number before they switched to social security numbers? (I don't). I wonder why they don't revert to those? The service numbers could be matched with social security numbers when needed.

I can recite it as fast as my SSN, which is fast. That number was acquired in 1966.

 

[Bimmerbill]

Military CACs still have the SSN on them, there is no way to not print them.

The civilain CACs don't have SSN on them.

We offer retired and dependant ID holders the option of not printing SSNs on their ID cards now.

 

[FinallyRetired]

I can recite it as fast as my SSN, which is fast. That number was acquired in 1966.

Hey, mine just suddenly returned to my mind, also from 1966. You're right, once in your mind it stays. I have the image of that number being imprinted on all of my underwear, something we had to do while in training to keep it from being lost by the laundry. Not that I would have minded.

 

[Khan]

In my opinion the CAC is the logically way to go. That is probably why the government will go a different route.



I can recite it as fast as my SSN, which is fast. That number was acquired in 1966.

In his 70s, my father could recite his 'serial number' from his brief stint in 1945.

 

[Nords]

We offer retired and dependant ID holders the option of not printing SSNs on their ID cards now.

That's good to know. It's not enough to make me want to endure the process at our local Personnel Support Detachment, but it's good to know.

 

[packrat44]

Hey, mine just suddenly returned to my mind, also from 1966. You're right, once in your mind it stays. I have the image of that number being imprinted on all of my underwear, something we had to do while in training to keep it from being lost by the laundry. Not that I would have minded.

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack. Went through a lot of dixie cup hats in the course of the day due to sweating.

 

[Nords]

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack.

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnd... they're OFF! "You had [insert minimum essential basic standard of living here]?!!? Why, when I was at boot camp we didn't even have [insert horrible recruit-training deprivation here]!" We really need CFB to do this right.

Our kid still thinks that one of the "advantages" of USNA over NROTC is that she won't have to do her own laundry.

Boy does she have a lot to learn. Apparently she's decided not to learn it from her parents...

 

[FinallyRetired]

You had laundry service while in boot camp? That is first class. We had to wash all our own clothes by hand on a wash rack. Went through a lot of dixie cup hats in the course of the day due to sweating.

You had hands? They cut off our hands during boot camp and didn't sew them back on until we knew how to salute with our stumps. That's why we needed the laundry.

 

[Fireup2020]

Boy does she have a lot to learn. Apparently she's decided not to learn it from her parents...

Congratulations Nords (and Mrs. Nords)...you have a normal teenager! Good job!

 

[packrat44]

Aaaaaaaaannnnnnd... they're OFF! "You had [insert minimum essential basic standard of living here]?!!? Why, when I was at boot camp we didn't even have [insert horrible recruit-training deprivation here]!"
...

Sounds like a great subject for a new thread.

 

[Nords]

Sounds like a great subject for a new thread.

Read the other 19,820 threads like it and get back to me on that...

 

[runnerr]

Service number, you bet all the way from 1968. As for all the aircraft numbers of the F4's I loaded with ordinance in Da Nang...only a couple if that.

 

[martyb]

So....runnerr...you old 462X0 you! Dude, I've loaded F-4's, F-16's & A-10's, but the ol' Phantom is the one I miss most. I've got the Phantom Bites on my back and head to prove I dunnit, too! Dontcha love the smell of JP-4 in the mornin'? 462's rock!

Marty

 

[martyb]

OK, I'll just say this....My best bud's son just graduated from Air Force basic training. Nowadays, and apparently for the past oh...say 15 years or so, basic trainees have been issued tennis shoes and shorts to run in. What?? When I was in basic(1977), we had to run in issue combat boots and fatigue pants. Were were mericfully allowed to remove the long sleeve cotton fatigue shirt, but that's it. For anybody, meaning pretty much everybody, who wasn't used to wearing combat boots, can you imagine what happened to our feet after walking, marching and RUNNING in them? It was blister city, of course. It sucked! I'd have paid 2 months pay for a good set of running shoed back then, no joke! OK, there's my "back in my day" story. Or, at least one of 'em!