5

November 1992 Houston Post article in regard to
whether or not there existed other administrative guidance, separate from
the PRAM, which authorized issuance of the DD 1173 I.D. card. They
located a U.S. Army Military History Institute historian named Dennis
Vetock at the Army War College in Carlisle, Pennsylvania who performed
research for them in this area; his findings (as reported on pages 74-76
of their book), based upon study of contemporaneous administrative
directives, were that use of the DD 1173 I. D. card commenced in 1957, and
that initially its issuance was authorized to: military dependents (the
primary recipients), disabled veterans, reservists, foreign military
personnel and their families, and overseas Federal civilian employees in
need of an I.D. Card which would grant base access. The LaFontaines write
that Vetock quoted the directive he located, dated July 16, 1957, as
saying that all active duty Marines should have received the DD Form 2MC
("green" card), and that all other personnel, including reservists,
should have been recipients of the DD Form 1173, the Uniformed Services
Identification and Privilege Card. The LaFontaines claim Vetok clarified,
however, that the guidance authorizing issuance of the DD 1173 to all
personnel not on active duty (including reservists) was terminated in
July, 1959 when the 3-card system (the "green," "gray," or "red" cards
described by the PRAM, in attachment 7) was instituted. They quote Vetock
as saying that thereafter, issuance of the DD 1173 continued to be
authorized for military dependents and various civil service personnel
requiring base access overseas (as the author can confirm through personal
experience is still the practice today), but not to reservists.

Findings: On October 2, 1996 the author contacted military historian
Dennis Vetock by telephone at the U.S. Army's Military History Institute
at Carlisle Barracks in Pennsylvania. He faxed to ARRB both the July 1957
internal U.S. Army guidance directing issuance of the DD 1173 I.D. card to
reservists, as well as the July 1959 internal U.S. Army guidance directing
that DD Forms 1173 which had been issued to members of the Army reserve
"be replaced in an orderly manner by DD Forms 2A (Res)"--i.e., the Army's
version of the "Red" or "Pink" Reserve I.D. card still in use today by
each component of the Armed Forces-- "as stocks of the latter become
available. DD Form 1173 will be surrendered and disposed of in accordance
with paragraph 16." (See attachment 17 for both of these excerpts.) Thus,
where the LaFontaines state that issuance of the DD 1173 was authorized
for reservists commencing in July 1957, and was discontinued commencing in
July 1959, they are correct in their basic facts, but neglect to point out
that the regulations cited by Mr. Vetock are Army regulations, and are not
DOD-wide. Furthermore, if they had taken the trouble to obtain the
pertinent regulations from Mr. Vetock, they would have noted that the July
1959 Army directive to cease issuing the DD 1173 to reservists, and
to instead issue, and replace it with, a "Red"I.D. card, allowed for an
orderly transition to the new I.D. card as stocks of the new document



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