Did you know that Military members used to be paid in cash?

Onboard ship we used to be paid in cash. The disbursing clerks would bring the pay rosters and money to the mess decks with a Marine armed guard and set up for payday.
I remember you could draw your entire check or take a portion of it by writing the amount you wanted to get and then signing.
It was kind of nice to get the cash in your hand.

Kelli. I enlisted in the Army on Aug 22, 1966 at age 19. This was still the "old" Army...we tore boards off the windows of barracks that had been stored since the end of WWII and trained with M14 rifles. Women did not join "our" Army - they joined the "Women's Army Corp" (WACs). My very first payday as a Pvt. E-1 had me report to a paymaster (Captain) who sat at a small field desk, had me repeat my service number, then placed the princely sum of $71.00 into my eager hands. If you consider the most money I ever made as a civilian up to that point was about $30 a month, you can understand my thinking of how in the world I would spend so much money!

Yep.

Sgt Kelli Mays my MOS when I was in the Marine Corps was 3421/Disbursing man. I was on active duty from 1969-1974. Early in my tour of duty we paid Marines in cash. Each Company Commander or his designee would report to the Disbursing Officer and draw the appropriate monies for his/her company and with an armed NCO would set about to pay all company personnel. Marines would submit their military ID cards and sign on their respective line and receive their designated pay. Signed payroll rosters would be returned to the Disbursing Officer for auditing. Sometime between 1972 and 1974 the Marine Corps began transitioning to a program that would eventually include all branches of the military it was called "JUMPS" which was a acronym for Joint Uniformed Military Pay System. I was discharged prior to it's full implementation.

My dad and stepdad were both career Navy men. I remember my stepdad telling me how he went to collect his paycheck at a window. There was a long line in front of him. By the time he made it to the window, the payroll clerk saw that it was closing time and shut the window--right in front of my stepdad. If I remember the story right, Dad was the last person or there were just a few Sailors left to get their pay, and the payroll clerk refused to open the pay window after shutting it in their faces.

Occasionally paid in special scripts and locally paid in silver dollars.

Yeah...that's why they call it "Pay Day Activities." There was a time when there weren't ATM machines and on line banking. The finance team would arrive and would hand out the pay.

Yes! And I remember getting the Government checks out in the Field!

The good ole days!!! LOL!

The exact procedures varied between the different services, but up until the mid-1970s (someone else may remember the exact date) we were all paid in cash once a month -- either real money or Military Payment Certificates (MPC), also known as 'Script' 'funny money' or 'monopoly money'.

MPC was used in some overseas locations where the US didn't want real US money getting into the civilian economy. MPC looked more like monopoly money (hence the name). There was paper MPC even instead of coins (no 1¢ MPC). The MPC generally came in different colors for each denomination and in different sizes for some values. Every few years the military would retire the version of MPC that was in use and issue a new version (there was a MASH episode about such an exchange -- Season 6 episode 8 first aired Nov 8, 1977).

Until the early 1970's we were paid the last working day of the month. Then in the early 1970's they started offering mid-month pay as an option. You could sign up to get either a fixed amount (limited to half your pay) or to get half your pay on the 15th or the last working day prior to the 15th. Several of us signed up for mid-month pay just in the hope that the unit might have "pay day activities" for the mid-month payday in addition to for end-of-month pay -- alas they never did.

Even after the military started offering Direct Deposit it wasn't mandatory at first. Many soldiers, especially those who were single, continued getting their pay in cash for a few years before Direct Deposit became mandatory.