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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted on: Monday, February 18, 2002

New ID card to be tested beginning today

Advertiser Staff

Hawai'i-based service members and civilian personnel soon will be receiving their new identification card — the Common Access Card.

A limited issuance will be made today for a three-week field testing of the card, the new identification being issued to active-duty military, select National Guard and Reserve personnel, and Department of Defense civilians and contractors.

The CAC performs all the functions and carries all the benefits of the ID card, but also has embedded memory and a microprocessor circuit chip.

The card ultimately will replace physical access badges for buildings and controlled spaces, allow users to log on to computers, encrypt e-mail and electronically sign documents.

The CAC will have 32 kilobytes of usable data space.

"Smart cards, the precursor to Common Access Cards, have been in use for approximately seven years in Hawai'i for applications such as personnel manifesting, readiness processing and food service," said Brad Stonesifer, U.S. Pacific Command Smart Card coordinator.

Active duty military and defense department civilian employees will receive CAC that are all white with differences noted in the description on the right side of the front of the card.

Selected contractors will have a green stripe on the front, and foreign nationals will have a red stripe on their cards.

"Base exchanges, commissaries and local merchants can expect to see Common Access Cards presented as the main form of identification for active-duty military and DoD civilian employees in the near future," Stonesifer said.

Operational issuance in Hawai'i is expected in mid-April. The CAC initially will be issued to those whose old ID card has expired and as operations and business process improvements require. As a result, there will be a transition period of about two years when both old and new cards will be in use, officials said.

Individuals will be notified by their organizations of times and locations to get the new card. There are no plans for the CAC to be issued to family members, retirees, disabled American veterans, inactive reserve and inactive National Guard members.