Monday, April 16, 2007

Tale of the ID Card

I just received my Reserve Retired Identification card today. I was waxing poetic that after several years of transparency with Active Reserve Identification cards I am now branded again via my bright red Reserve Retired ID as a Reservist. A little history on Reserve versus Active Duty ID cards

In 1997 in a step toward achieving full integration of the active and reserve military components, Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen has announced that identification (ID) cards for all active component and Reserve active status U.S. military personnel will now be the same color green. This initiative, which was phased in over several years called for changing the color of the Reserve active status forces identification card (DD Form 2 (Reserve)) from red to green. Reserve active status forces include members of the Selected Reserve, the Individual Ready Reserve, and the active Standby Reserve. Only the color of the card held by these members of the Reserve components will change; there will be no associated changes to current service benefits, privileges and entitlements, unless a change in status occurs.

The change was in response to a pledge made by Cohen in a policy memorandum, calling on the civilian and military leadership of the Department of Defense to eliminate "all residual barriers structural and cultural" to effective integration of the Reserve and active components into a "seamless Total Force."

Among the many considerations taken into account by DoD officials when authorizing the change were medical benefits and commissary privileges, two primary areas in which active and Reserve personnel have different entitlements. An ID card alone does not automatically authorize access to medical benefits or commissary privileges, both of which will continue to require additional documentation to allow members of the Reserve components to receive them. Eligibility checks for medical benefits are now performed by electronic validation prior to each inpatient and outpatient visit to Military Health Services System facilities. Consequently, the system check, not the ID card, will continue to verify patient eligibility.

For many years, I had an ID card essentially the same as my Active duty brethren – and it only changed when I went on Active duty in a small degree. Since my return from Iraq the card is the same for Active and Reserve Soldiers. Now as a Reserve retiree – I am in receipt of a DD Form 2 (Res Ret) which is unchanged since 1993 – bright red and an obvious indicator that I am Army Reserve retired – so much for that cultural change to effective integration of the Reserve and active components into a "seamless Total Force”. Perhaps I am driven to be more critical now as the Guard and Reserve soldiers serve shoulder to shoulder with Active duty soldiers. None the less the vestiges of the early nineties prevalent Army attitudes towards Reserve service, sits right here in my wallet.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I recently received my retired card after reaching age 60 at an USAF base. My card is blue and on the back reads "Yes" for medical. Did I get the wrong card?

Anonymous said...

Yup. One fight, one Army.

Except when it's not.

Stan68ar said...

anonymous - you have the correct card - Retired reservist after age 60 are reissued an ID card matching active duty retirees.

Anonymous said...

Question - I've got a DD Form 2 (reserve) green ID card, what does that indicate????

Anonymous said...

I retired before age 60 do I get ant kind of ID card?

Anonymous said...

what does yes in the medical field mean?

Plastic business cards said...

ID card software is instrumental in designing and encoding advanced ID cards.

Anonymous said...

I was in the Air Force Reserve for 9 years. How do I obtain an ID card and what, if any benefits am I entitled to?

Anonymous said...

I'm an O-4 retiree and holds a DD form Res. ret. Card and was essentially told at mac terminal at McGuire today that my red reserve retired Id card would not allow me to take my family with me on a space a flight.

I showed them their own documentation that they published and had the OIC and two E-7s confer and then they booked me into the system, only to have a civilian later call up to AMC HQ to probably another civilian to have them pull my family off the flight because my ID was red and not blue. They said I could fly but my family couldn't which was explicitly wrong .

My family was pulled seemingly because everyone wanted to simply CYA instead of honoring the intent of the privilege. I served more time overseas deployed as a reservist ( and my family held the home-front) than I ever did when I was active. My highest commendations such as a BSM were earned as a reservist, yet when it came tonight to honoring my retirement privileges, the red card reared it's past head and I was made to feel like a second class retiree in front of my family. So much for see less integration and one army, one fight.