Retro ID Cards

And so in early December it came to us; how fun would it be to create ‘retro’ military dependent ID card?

When we, Military Brats, left home or when our parents left the service we had to surrender our ID cards.  Not a big deal perhaps, to civilians, but to us Brats our ID cards symbolized our existence.  It was almost losing our ‘identity’ for a while.  From when we became aware that they even existed we counted the days until we turned 12.  That was the minimum age you could receive an ID card back in the day.  I wouldn’t doubt it if they just give them to about anyone these days – after all, every kid deserves a trophy today…

So a friend and I put our heads together and came up with this great military dependent retro ID card.  How cool is that?  They kind of look like this, ‘like’ the original ones:

RetroID

Only we “sanitized it.”  (I think Brats have more of an appreciation for security sometimes than active duty folks or members of congress.)  Front and back there was nothing that could pass for military.  Nada!  However just before going into production our printer’s lawyers advised the company against it.

Their claim was that someone could use the card to gain entrance into the World Trade Center, blow the place up and the company would be held liable for trillions (of dollars).  Oh, really?

Let’s look at the ‘big picture’ here a minute.  A “Retro” ID card.  An OBSOLETE, Retro ID card!  No bar code anywhere.  No American eagle or bird if any kind anywhere on it.  No rank of any kind.  No “unit” details.  Nothing military.  And most of the pictures on the damn thing would be pictures of us as kids:

Circle "F" 1

Makes me take pause to think that they should consider enlisting the legal staff in Homeland Security.  Clever bastards they are… the “tip of the spear” with respect to homeland defense…

This entry was posted in A Nation Gone Nuts, Air Force Brats. Bookmark the permalink.

One Response to Retro ID Cards

  1. Jon says:

    I became a liability to the DoD at age 10 in 1968 when I got my first of several dependent ID cards. My last one issued in 1974 while an Army brat on Okinawa.
    I would transition in 1976 to a DDForm 2N as an active duty Sailor.

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