I recently was doing some sorting and disposing of boxes and clutter in the attic. I found a box of black and white negatives for photography that I took in the 1960s. I moved this collection to my craft room for sorting and curating. Will I find some negatives that are worth printing out as photos? I think so — stay tuned.
What I also found in this box is my ID card from serving in the U. S. Coast Guard beginning in January 1962. The front of the ID card is reproduced here:
Some interesting data is recorded here. For example, the card is good until 28 Sep 1969. My rank is Non-Petty Officer, which covers my actual rank of Seaman Apprentice as the card was created at the beginning of my basic training at Cape May (New Jersey) Coast Guard Training Center <https://www.forcecom.uscg.mil/Our-Organization/FORCECOM-UNITS/TraCen-Cape-May/>.
Note also my Service Number: 2052-558. According to several entries in Wikipedia.com, military service numbers were started in 1918 and continued through until 1974 when all branches of the military (Coast Guard, Army, Navy, and Air Force) transitioned to using Social Security Numbers as identifiers.
The back of my ID card provides more information about me:
Here is my birthday, my weight of 184 lb (which I wish I could get back to), and my height of 70 1/2 in. Also, my hair color and eye color, and my blood type.
I had forgotten that I was fingerprinted for the ID card — that is at least the index fingers of both hands. I know that all my fingers were printed when I applied to work on the 2010 census. I wonder if the two fingerprint records were ever matched up. I would guess not.
I will store the ID card safely in my collection of military records, along with my DD214 service record, and upload the two photos to my personal gallery in my family tree on Ancestry.com.
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