EagleCash, EZpay and NavyCash

I was a Supply Officer in the navy.  During my first assignment in Vietnam we used Military Payment Certificates.  MPC.  That is the military cash that was used in Vietnam and it is described here.  MPC was used instead of US Dollars to keep currency used by the military separate from local currency. 

Keeping currency separated worked about as well as keeping military personnel separate from the local population.  In order to maintain separation a new issue of MPC was made periodically.  The link describing MPC discusses that process.

I was not assigned as a disbursing officer in Danang.  It took all the junior Supply Officers available in Danang regardless of their duties to pay all the navy personnel every payday.  I was given a bag of money every payday, a .45 and a Disbursing Clerk assistant to pay at a designated site.  I was not given transportation to the site and my DK and I had to hitch hike a ride carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars of MPC!  We came back with navy pay chits that together with the remaining MPC had to equal the original total amount of MPC that I was given and had signed for.

If I could not account for all the MPC originally given to me and signed for then I was personally responsible for the loss.  Prior to signing for it I counted it all to verify that it was there.  One payday I counted it all but neglected to sign for it before leaving making the disbursing officer that gave it to remain personally responsible for all the MPC given to me.  He came looking for me with his .45 a pen and and a receipt to be signed for what I had!

On the day that a new issue of MPC was made it took the entire day to retire the old MPC and give sailors an equal amount of new MPC issue making the old issue worthless.  The local Vietnamese possessed MPC (although it was not allowed) and were stuck with the loss if they could not somehow get it into the hands of an American authorized to exchange it for the new issue MPC.  Security was tight on that day to avoid this.  I expect that security often failed!

The old days of shipboard disbursing that I had been trained for are long gone as is the ship that I served on off Vietnam subsequent to my in country tour.

The military now uses a card system to handle cash not only in foreign places but in general military personnel cash transactions.  That system is called EZcash, EaglePay which is described here.  The navy version is called NavyCash and is described here.  They are all generic Stored Cash Card systems which are described here.

The NavyCash system is a JPMorgan-owned commercial system operated on behalf of the United States Government for the express use of Navy / Marine Cash Cardholders and other authorized users.   Log in to the system for authorized users is this .com web site.  

The JPMorgan office administering/contact point for the NavyCash system is located at a Tampa Airport PO Box address.