Why does my military ID say Army instead of Army Reserve or National Guard? Does that give someone a misconception that one is active duty?

nah its all one ARMY.

One CAC to rule them all.

The ID cards used to differentiate between Active, Guard, and Reserves. But they changed that years ago.

Army is Army, regardless. However, back in the day, before CAC, Army was RA, NG, ER ... ID cards had your SSN on the card and were different colors. When visiting the commissary or px or class vi, non active duty would need to show orders in order to use the privileges of the facilities when reservist or Guard. This was true for MWR activities. Today, Base Commanders may authorize some or all of MWR to "eligible patrons" other than active duty, retirees, dod civilians, etc.

Once the CAC card was introduced, deers eligibility is now tracked by dod ID number. If you have a VA medical ID card, the ID number should match your previous CAC ID. If you are retired, that number will match.

Since commissary and px privileges have been extended to Honorably discharged veterans, VA medical ID cards will include "service connected" for disabled veterans. So for the most part, military affiliation is all that is required for most post/base privs. The words NG or Reserve is unnecessary. In the computer, DEERS will show full affiliation and it is encoded within the dodid barcode on your CAC
that is scanned at the gate.

No, you were given that card for a reason whether it's simply for CAC reader functionality or because you need some kind of gate access. If you were a reservist who wasn't doing anything military related, they would have given you a reservist card. The reservist card serves no purpose accept as an ID for base privileges. So it's not to mistake you for an active duty soldier, it's just that you are doing more military related things than the standard reservist.

Why does your uniform tape say "US ARMY" instead of "NATIONAL GUARD" or "ARMY RESERVES?" It is to have a uniformity and espirit de corp among members. And for easier logistics.

The color of the card is red?