At this time embalming had been invented and soldiers who died many miles away from home, could have their bodies preserved and shipped back to their family for burial. Before the Union army began to offer this service, an insurance policy could be purchased to have this procedure carried out should you be killed on the battlefield. To identify you, a tag was issued with your policy number inscribed upon it and worn around your neck. Once your body was found on the battlefield with this disk, you would be removed and taken to the rear where there were embalming sheds. Here your body would be treated and shipped home in a zinc lined coffin. You would be visible to your loved ones through a glass window in the lid showing head, chest and shoulders.
In May 1862, John Kennedy from New York proposed that each Union soldier be issued with an ID tag. This idea was rejected but it did not stop soldiers on both sides from buying or making their own. And so, the premise for an ID Tag, dog-tag as it resembles those tags worn by our pets, was sown. The first army to issue its troops with dog tags was the Prussians. Their troops wore them in the 1870 Franco Prussian war and they were called ‘recognition tags’. After this, many other countries began to follow in their footsteps.
The British Army however stayed with identification cards and it was not until 1907 when the first British ‘Disk’ Identity was introduced by Army Order Number 9. This order stated that an aluminium disk would be hung from a piece of cord 42-inches in length and worn around the soldier’s neck. Each disk would be 35mm in diameter with an 8mm tab. The information stamped onto the disk would be the soldier’s number, name, regiment and religious denomination. If he changed his rank then a new disk would be issued. In 1908 these tags were also issued to special reservists.
This embalming tag is said to have spawned the idea for dog tags to identify the troops.
It’s not surprising to find that the Romans were one of the first armies to issue dog tags to their soldiers. Upon joining a legion they were given a disk made of lead called a signaculum which was worn around the neck on a piece of string. This disk had the recruit’s name on it and the legion he belonged to.
During the American Civil War (1861-1865), the the identification of the killed soldiers was daunting due to the number of casualties during the many battles. The issue was further complicated by inadequate record keeping 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 percent 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.
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.
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. To note, the first identification tags were brass and later a corrosion-resistant alloy of nickel and copper. Today, military dog tags are made of stainless steel. As technology advances so have the materials and processes used to properly identify America’s service members and return them home with honor.
Then later, during the Vietnam War (1955-1975), military service members began to place one custom dog tag in their boot, tied in with their bootlaces. The thought was if their body was dismembered to an extent they were unidentifiable, the dog tag in the boot helped with the recovery of their remains.
On December 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.
“This news was widespread and easily caught on,” said Ginger Cucolo during a presentation called “Dog Tags: History, Stories & Folklore of Military Identification” at the Library of Congress. “We believe that that is where dog tags and the label did stick.”
Seaman Apprentice Anthony Manning, a hospital corpsman with 7th Communication Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force, relocates dog tags from the U.S. Marine Corps monument Sept. 9, 2009 on Iwo Jima. US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Monty Burton.
While DNA analysis can identify anonymous remains, dog tags are still standard issue for US service members today. In an effort to honor the legacy of those killed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Museum of the Forgotten Warrior outside of Beale Air Force Base in California has an outdoor exhibit featuring thousands of individual dog tags. The Iraq/Afghanistan Dog Tag Memorial, as of 2011, contains 6,296 individual dog tags.
To ease their minds, some soldiers tattooed their epitaphs on their bodies, while others made personalized dog tags out of paper or stitched them onto clothing. These identification symbols were also fashioned into coins or carved into wood chunks and hung around their necks. It was their way to assist the living when no official process was in place.
Seaman Apprentice Anthony Manning, a hospital corpsman with 7th Communication Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force, relocates dog tags from the US Marine Corps monument Sept. 9, 2009, on Iwo Jima. US Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Monty Burton.
Monument Guys: The History of Military I.D. Tags (S1, E5) | History
In the days long before military dog tags were even a thought, U.S. Army officers at the attack on Confederate fortifications at Cold Harbor, Virginia, noticed troops sewing their names into their jackets. After more than three years of bloody fighting, everyone knew how dangerous the coming battle would be.
They were about to attack six miles of zigzagged earthworks that would expose them to withering cross-fires. The men wanted to give the Army a way to identify their bodies once the shooting was over.
Throughout the war, attempts to give soldiers ways to identify themselves were varied. Units used circular discs and “soldier pins” in an effort to identify and record the names of the men in their ranks — but only one per person. None of these efforts were uniform, however, and tens of thousands of soldiers killed in action were buried in mass graves or marked as unknowns.
Other soldiers fixed paper identification tags to themselves and their belongings. Others fashioned crude identification markers from wood. Still, 42% of Civil War dead remain unidentified, according to U.S. military historians.
In 1906, General Order #204 required the issue of an aluminum disc the size of a half-dollar coin to be worn around troops necks. Though it came after the Spanish-American War, it was a more uniform way of identifying soldiers and a step in the right direction — but still only issued one at a time.
By the beginning of World War I, the “dog tag” as we know it began to take shape. Soldiers deploying to fight in the trenches of WWI were given two coin-like metal discs, each marked with their name. They wore them into combat and, if they were killed, one coin stayed on their remains.
In World War II, identification tags started to look more like todays standard-issue dog tags. They were metal and rectangular, with a notch in a lower corner. The soldiers information was imprinted on the metal tag. That notch was used to align the metal plate on the machine that embossed the information.
The notch became the center of U.S. military troops first myth around their dog tags. Common belief held that a medic would take one of the fallen soldiers tags and put it in his mouth, using the notch to line up the tag with his front teeth. Then, the medic or doctor would kick his jaw shut over the tag to ensure it stayed in place, according to the myth.
During the Korean War, the second tag was put on a much shorter chain, attached to the main chain, for a similar reason. But it wouldnt be put in the mouth of the deceased. Instead, it was used as a toe tag. In the Vietnam era, combat troops started to lace their second tag in their boots, the way United States Marines wear them today.
Notched dog tags were phased out by the 1970s, when the machines that required notches were replaced with more advanced embossing machines. Aluminum tags gave way to stainless steel.
Today, dog tags arent as necessary for identification purposes, given the advances in DNA technology, along with more detailed recordkeeping by the U.S. military. Identifying remains is a more detailed process than simply relying on the service members dog tags.
But still, dog tags remain an important symbol of military service, one that connects todays troops to the traditions of the past.
— Blake Stilwell can be reached at [email protected]. He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.