Army CAC Card for Military Personnel
CAC, Common Access Card, is a smart card issued by a U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). It is considered as a standard identification card for military members including active-duty military personnel, civilian employees, reserve personnel, non DoD government employees, eligible contractor personnel and state employees of the National Guard. This card is used for authentication purposes so as to enable access to DoD networks, computers and other DoD facilities. The Army CAC card helps in the cryptographic signing of email and in encryption. It establishes an authoritative process of using identity credentials. It also facilitates the use of PKI, public key infrastructure authentication tools.
The size of Army CAC card is about the size of a credit or debit card. 
It gives physical access to military controlled spaces and buildings. There are four types of Army CAC card. Its type will determine your Sponsor. Sponsor is the person responsible for authorizing and verifying your need for an ID card and is affiliated with the DoD and other federal agencies.
Types of Army CAC card
- Armed Forces of the United States Geneva Conventions Identification Card: It is a card for members of Active Duty Armed Forces, National Guard, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Public Health Services, Selected Reserves and U.S. Coast Guard. This card is in accordance with Geneva Convention requirements. It displays branch of Service.
- U.S. DoD and/or Uniformed Services Identification Card: This card is issued to non DoD federal employees working in support of DoD, Non DoD civilian employees, eligible DoD, USCG and NOAA contractors, DoD and uniformed services civilian employees, Intergovernmental Personnel Act employees and state employees working in support of the National Guard. This Army CAC card is basically used for access to DoD facilities, computer systems and installations.
- U.S. DoD and/or Uniformed Services Geneva Conventions Identification Card for Civilians Accompanying the Armed Forced: The recipients of this Army CAC card are the contingency contractor personnel and emergency-essential civilian employees. It is a standard card for civilians accompanying the Armed Forces.
- U.S. DoD and/or Uniformed Services Identification and Privilege Card: This Army CAC card grants applicable benefits and privileges to eligible personnel. The recipients of this card are
- DoD and uniformed services civilian employees – those residing on a military installation within HI, AK, CONUS, Puerto Rico and Guam or those who are employed or stationed and are residing in foreign countries for at least 365 days.
- DoD contractors stationed and employed but residing in foreign countries for the last 365 days.
- DoD Presidential appointees
- Uniformed and non-uniformed full-time paid personnel of the Red Cross but assigned to duty with the uniformed services within Guam, Puerto Rico, CONUS, AK and HI.
- Eligible foreign military
The blue bar on the Army CAC card signifies that the card is for Non-U.S. Citizen, the green bar is for Contractors and the white is for all remaining personnel.
To get your Army CAC card is not difficult once you know the steps that you have to go through. You need to understand the process in order to obtain your card. If you still encounter any problem while getting Army CAC card, you can contact AKO help desk for assistance.
