Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: mbin@amsaa-seer.brl.mil (Mary Binseel)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Dogtags
Message-ID: <1990Jul28.161015.1737@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 28 Jul 90 16:10:15 GMT
References: <1990Jul23.201658.5303@cbnews.att.com> <1990Jul25.004628.6771@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: U.S. ARMY MATERIEL SYSTEMS ANALYSIS ACTIVITY (AMSAA), APG, MD.
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: Mary Binseel <mbin@amsaa-seer.brl.mil>

There just happens to be a short article by Gerard C. Wilson on the history
of dogtags in the April 1990 issue of _Soldiers_ magazine (v45, n4,
published by the U.S. Army, Cameron Sation, Alexandria, VA, 22304-5050.)

To quote the article (allowed!) the information on WWII era dogtags was:

"... the soldier's name, serial number, blood type, religion, the date of
his initial tetanus shot and the name and address of next of kin.  At some
point during the war the next of kin information was eliminated."

This, alas, does not give you the specific format.  The article does have
interesting photos of some tags, but they are all Civil War era.  It does,
however, say something about the WWII tag construction:

"The 1940 model was made of two thin layers of stainless steel, one of which
was larger and was crimped one edge over the other.  This model had a
curious notch at one end.  It was used to properly position the tag in the
embossing machine, and as a first nail position when nailing the tag to the
shipping crate transporting the remains of deceased soldiers."

Finally, as an aside, this little thought for the day:

"Vietnam photographs sometimes showed a dog tag worn on a bootlace.  This
practice was adopted because some types of booby traps could sometimes 
destroy a man from the knees up."

Hope this helps.                                     MaryB