Today, the issuance of military dog tags remains an important component of military culture, but reliance on dog tags is more symbolic as technology advances. The dog tags are still stamped with important information (name, serial/social security number, blood type and religious preference), but the military uses medical/dental records and DNA sampling to positively identify deceased military service members.
On Dec. 20, 1906, by General Order #204, the United States government decided upon a circular aluminum disc to be worn as an identification tag, and by 1913, the identification discs were required for all military service members. An aluminum disc the size of a silver half dollar – imprinted with the name, rank, company, regiment or corps, worn by both officer and enlisted member in the field – suspended around the neck.
During the 1950s, the two dog tags were detailed to each service member for a specific purpose regarding accountability. One identification tag was placed on a long chain, while the second was hung on a shorter chain. Upon death, the identification tag on the shorter chain was placed around the toe of the deceased, thus the nickname “toe tag” was given to this identification tag. The other dog tag was to either remain with the deceased or collected, as time permitted, by survivors to report back the name of the deceased.
During the American Civil War (1861-65), only 58% of soldiers killed in action were positively identified. Soldiers worried that if they were killed, their families would never know what happened to them, other than that they were missing in action. They wrote their names on a piece of paper or a handkerchief, and pinned it to their clothing before going into battle. Some soldiers went to the trouble of carving small wooden discs with their names on them. They drilled a hole in the disc and hung the disc from their neck with a piece of string.
The issue was further complicated by inadequate recordkeeping of personnel assigned to and fighting as regulars or volunteers in both the Union and Confederate militaries, and lost records pertaining to burial locations. The first attempt to provide identification tags were called “name discs” or “soldier pins” of various designs, and there was no specific uniformity pertaining to the information provided. Despite their best efforts to mark themselves, historians estimate that 50% of those killed in the Civil War were either unaccounted for or simply marked unknown. The nation debated how to address this issue to ensure Americans were properly accounted for, returned home, and given proper burial.
One of the more common myths involves the reason for the notch on the tag issued between 1941 and the early 1970s. Battlefield rumor held that the notched end of the tag was placed between the front teeth of battlefield casualties to hold the jaws in place. No official record of American soldiers being issued these instructions exists; the only purpose of “the notch” was to hold the blank tag in place on the embossing machine. The machine used at this time doesnt require a notch to hold the blank in place, hence, todays tags are smooth on all sides.
[Collected via e-mail, 2003]
I was dating a guy in the military who told me this story about dog tags. He said that if a soldier was killed in the field, his surviving comrade was to take one of the dog tags, break it in half, and close the dead soldiers jaw firmly over one of the halves it to keep it in place for identification purposes in case the body was found. He also said that the ball chain that holds the tags is comprised of 365 beads, and the smaller loop that goes through the tags is comprised of 52 beads. If a soldier is taken prisoner, he can detach the beads as a means of keeping track of how many days have passed.
away to the morgue it is marked for identification with a simple token: a paper tag attached to a toe of the deceased. In the more turbulent world of the military, however, a hardier ID token is necessary. This token needs to be something that is carried on a soldiers person at all times, because the violence of combat can often leave remains difficult to identify, and it needs to be sturdy, because bodies may have to be moved a long ways under rough and adverse conditions before being attended to by mortuary personnel. Under these conditions a paper tag is too fragile — it may too easily be rendered unreadable or separated from the body it identifies, hence the development and use of the oblong-shaped “dog tag” now worn by members of the armed forces.
When measured against the gripping mental of lion-hearted soldiers setting aside their personal grief to kick shut the jaws of fallen comrades, proper alignment on a stamping machine just doesnt present itself as much of a story. This lack of romance is perhaps some of the reason for the popularity of grisly rumors about the purpose for the notch — what reality fails to supply, rumor agreeably contributes. More than thirty years since the cleft was last a part of these tags, mail from our readers confirms the story is very much in circulation. Indeed, some have heard unusual variations on the theme:
While it is true decomposing bodies do bloat from gases that build up therein, propping open mouths of corpses to vent them wouldnt have much effect since these gases are present throughout the body, not just in the digestive system and lungs. (These vapors eventually escape as the tissue containing them breaks down, allowing them to leak from the body.)
Making It Official
The first official request to outfit service members with ID tags came in 1899 at the end of the Spanish-American war. Army Chaplain Charles C. 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.
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. The half-dollar size tags were stamped with a soldiers name, rank, company and regiment or corps, and they were attached to a cord or chain that went around the neck. The tags were worn under the field uniform.
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 first tag was to remain with the body, while the second was for burial service record keeping. The tags were given to enlisted men, but officers had to buy them.
The Navy didnt require ID tags until May 1917. By then, all U.S. combat troops were required to wear them. Exact size specifications were put in place, and the tags also included each mans Army-issued serial number. 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 didnt remain after the war.
Loot and extract 4 enemy dog tags Call of Duty DMZ (Dog Tag Locations)
We all know what dog tags are — those little oval disks on a chain that service members wear to identify themselves in combat. But have you ever wondered how and when that tradition started, and why theyre called dog tags?