One of my coworkers asked a seemingly stupid question this morning, but I sure couldn’t answer it:
Do soldiers serving in Iraq need passports to re-enter the US, on leave, for instance?
No. Valid military orders, including leave papers, are sufficient in most cases. This is normally addressed in the Status of Forces Agreement in place w/ most countries that have U.S. forces serving there. There are some exceptions where other countries, not signatory to a SoFA, may require a U.S. passport, but these are very limited and the U.S. would still recognize military orders for reentry into the U.S.
The U.S. tries to avoid sending troops to countries w/o a SoFA agreement as too many legal difficulties are likely to arise.
You also need to carry a military ID on your person if you’re in a foreign country or if you’re trying to re-enter the US on military orders.
Robin
Good point, I seem to forget the obvious at times.
Both of my brothers have cards in their wallets, in addition to their military ID cards that permit them to immediately board any plane without a ticket and without waiting or going through security and or customs. I don’t know how well those would work on a foreign air carrier / customs official but anything having to do with America wouldn’t have a problem. Besides, the last thing on Earth you want to do is hassle a marine in the midst of carrying out matters sensitive to national security.
These cards by the way, do not get used often or as an easy way to make it home for the holidays. That’s why they have one and I don’t. 
Hmmm… I’m a Ground Security Coordinator for a major US airline. I can tell you that in my 12 years in this position not only have I never seen such a card, I nor any of my employees have received any training regarding said cards.
I wouldn’t count on getting immediate access to any of my aircraft without a ticket. Only properly ticketed passengers, and badged employees will be allowed onboard.
Not saying they don’t exist, but it would trigger many a phone call and checking with the TSA confirms such a card would not allow them to bypass proper screening methods either.
Looking through the current security directives turns up nothing either… Still at level Orange though.
I doubt that such a card exists–especially for Marines. NSA or Sky Marshals or Secret Service or something might have such a card… but a Marine? C’mon. Maybe they just have a government travel card which lets them purchase tickets at government expense. But boarding without a ticket? A Marine? What are their jobs?
I was issued a passport while I was in, but that is because I was going to be on independent travel at times in countries with a restrictive SOFA.
One is currently a drill sargent and I don’t know if he would still have such a thing, the other is an intel guy at MARSOC who could believably have a need for such a thing.
OTOH, based on the responses I’m fully willing to admit that little brother might have gotten one off on big brother just for shits and giggles. 
I think they got one over on you. Your INTEL brother would either have a Government Travel Card (a Visa Card), that allows him to purchase tickets as needed, or–if he was important enough–he’d be flown around via military aircraft (like helicopters) whenever his national security missions required immediate transportation. That’s my guess, anyway.
Well there goes his Christmas present!
This is of course a massively stupid idea – though unfortunately that’s not a good enough reason to say the current US Government didn’t do it.
Sure, it sounds great to allow your trusted terrorism-fighters to avoid red tape and rigamarole, right up until a bad guy (or bad girl) manages to steal or forge one of the master cards. Then there’s no security at all anymore.
Not that most objective experts think that airplane security is necessary or important, anyway, once you’ve strengthened and locked doors to the flight deck.
When I checked into a Paris hotel the clerk asked for my passport. I handed him my military ID and explained that I entered his country through the port of Marseille. He shrugged and handed it back to be the next day with nary a question.
Aren’t military personel also immune from being bumped off an oversold airplane?
Yeah, they also get free money, sex whenever they want it and a card that prohibits their wives from nagging them…
ETA: As for the OP I served in the military for eight years. I was stationed in Italy and I traveled all over the world including back and forth to the US. The only time I needed a passport was when I entered East Berlin. There is a treaty that allows military personnel to travel on their ID card. Apparently that treaty did not include the Soviet Union, back then.
Look, when military personnel absolutely positively have to be there, they don’t fly commercial.
FWIW, I don’t remember ever presenting orders. My military ID was always enough.
Re: East Berlin, even though the Russies were still there, the wall was down, and there wasn’t as much as a checkpoint. It turns out that we’d paid for local transportation (U-Bahn), and we’d discovered too late that with an allied forces ID, we could’ve ridden for free.
Come to think of it, when you’re on leave, you don’t have orders (although you do have leave paperwork), so you couldn’t always show orders just for travelling.
In the bad old days of Check Point Charlie, the VOPO, the Berlin Wall and the duty train from Frankfurt to Berlin, US military personnel were encouraged to visit East Berlin in uniform, apparently just to assert rights under the armistice agreement that divided Germany and Berlin into occupation zones. There were Russian liaison teams doing the same thing in West Germany. The funny thing is that US (and for all I know British and French) personnel in uniform were pointedly ignored by East German officials. We went in on a bus. The border police wanted to see my wife’s papers but just pretended I wasn’t there. On the way out everybody else on the bus gave their D Marks to a uniformed soldier to hold until we were back in West Berlin – something about it being unlawful to take western currency out of East Germany.
We traveled all over western Europe on my military ID card and my wife’s dependent ID card. We did get passports but we probably didn’t need them – just felt it gave us a little lower profile, despite the short hair, horn rim glasses and leather shoes.
I have here in front of me a liberated copy of USAREUR Reg. 550-180, “Clearance and Documentation for Travel To, From, and in Berlin.” If I ever get motivated, I’ll scan and post it, as it’s an interesting read, and its 1980 release date certainly precedes me (1991 to 1993).
Such as (keeping in mind that to get to Berlin [East or West] in car, one had to pass through East Germany): “Fines. You will pay no fines if stopped by GDR officials and a monetary fine is demanded. You will ask the GDR officer to call a Soviet officer.”
It’s probably a card with a list of phone numbers to people/agencies that get things done.
Leave papers have the force of orders, and I’ve had to explain that to more than one gate agent who wanted to see official orders.
alphaboi, military personnel can be bumped, but if they’re traveling on the gubmint’s dime, any compensation above and beyond hotel and meal expenses is supposed to be returned to the unit. In practice, however, that usually doesn’t happen since there is a certain amount of courtesy extended to military personnel.
Robin