page_title: Service number (United States Army)
section_title: Discontinuation of Army service numbers
hierarchical_section_title: Service number (United States Army) / Discontinuation of Army service numbers
caption_attribution_description: English: Army Officer Service Number Chart
context_page_description: Service numbers were used by the United States Army from 1918 until 1969. Prior to this time, the Army relied on muster rolls as a means of indexing enlisted service members while officers were usually listed on yearly rolls maintained by the United States War Department. In the nineteenth century, the Army also used pay records as a primary means of identifying service members after discharge.
context_section_description: In 1968, the Army activated the seventy million series and in 1969 created eighty million numbers as well.  The new numbers, which were to be issued only to the enlisted draft force, ranged from 70 000 000 to 89 999 999.  By this time, however, service numbers had been informally discontinued and most military records used Social Security numbers to identify the service member.  As a result, on July 1, 1969, service numbers were declared discontinued and no 70 or 80 million series numbers were ever issued.
  It was not recorded who exactly held the last service number of the United States Army.  The highest service number for the draft force was in the 68 million range; however, since Social Security numbers were being commonly used instead of service numbers, the identity of the soldier who held this number is unknown.  The Regular Army, which had issued service numbers by geographical codes since World War II, had several numbers which could be interpreted as the final service number of the 10–19 million series.
  The highest Army officer service numbers were issued slightly above 05 850 999 although there are no clear records of who held these final numbers, again due to Social Security numbers being used for record keeping instead of service numbers.  The last Regular Army service number was somewhere in the 130 000 to 140 000 range.
  After 1969, the Army completely converted to Social Security numbers for the identification of military personnel.
caption: Final distribution of Army officer service numbers
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