#United states army dog tags serial#

The biggest difference was the etched print of each sailor's right index finger on the back, which was meant to safeguard against fraud, an accident or misuse.Įach was mechanically stamped with your name, rank, service number, blood type and religion, if desired. If you were enlisted, the etching included your date of birth and enlistment, while officers' included their date of appointment. Made of monel - a group of nickel alloys - they had the letters 'U.S.N.' etched on them using a specific process involving printer's ink, heat and nitric acid. Slight Differencesĭuring World War I, Navy tags were a bit different than Army's. Toward the end of World War I, American Expeditionary Forces in Europe added religious symbols to the tags - C for Catholic, H for Hebrew and P for Protestant - but those markings didn't remain after the war.

#United states army dog tags serial#

Exact size specifications were put in place, and the tags also included each man's Army-issued serial number. combat troops were required to wear them. The Navy didn't require ID tags until May 1917. The tags were given to enlisted men, but officers had to buy them. The first tag was to remain with the body, while the second was for burial service record keeping. The order was modified in July 1916, when a second disc was required to be suspended from the first by a short string or chain. The tags were worn under the field uniform. The half-dollar size tags were stamped with a soldier's name, rank, company and regiment or corps, and they were attached to a cord or chain that went around the neck. It took a few years, but in December 1906, the Army put out a general order requiring aluminum disc-shaped ID tags be worn by soldiers. Pierce - who was in charge of the Army Morgue and Office of Identification in the Philippines - recommended the Army outfit all soldiers with the circular disks to identify those who were severely injured or killed in action. The first official request to outfit service members with ID tags came in 1899 at the end of the Spanish-American war. The outcome of the war showed that concerns about identification were valid, and the practice of making identification disks caught on. To bring that into perspective, consider this: Of the more than 17,000 troops buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery, the largest Union cemetery in the U.S., nearly 13,000 of those graves are marked as unknown. Historical resources show that in 1862, a New Yorker named John Kennedy offered to make thousands of engraved disks for soldiers, but the War Department declined.īy the end of the Civil War, more than 40% of the Union Army’s dead were unidentified. Those who could afford it bought engraved metal tags from nongovernment sellers and sutlers - vendors who followed the armies during the war. According to the Marine Corps, some men carved their names into chunks of wood strung around their necks. Others used old coins or bits of round lead or copper. Some marked their clothing with stencils or pinned-on paper tags. They were terrified of being buried in unmarked graves, so they found various ways to prevent that. Unofficially, identification tags came about during the Civil War because soldiers were afraid no one would be able to identify them if they died. Regardless of where the nickname started, the concept of an identification tag originated long before that. Another rumor said it was because the tags looked similar to the metal tag on a dog's collar. Other rumored origins of the nickname include World War II draftees calling them dog tags because they claimed they were treated like dogs. According to the SSA, Hearst referred to them as 'dog tags' similar to those used in the military. He had heard the newly formed Social Security Administration was considering giving out nameplates for personal identification. In 1936, Hearst wanted to undermine support for President Franklin D. VIRIN: 190829-F-DD647-1004B Origins of the 'Dog Tag' NicknameĪccording to the Army Historical Foundation, the term 'dog tag' was first coined by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst.