USN dog tags question

[topdcnut]

Does anyone know what the P before the USNR stands for?

 

John

[firefighter]

I think it religious preference, Protestant?

[bellasilva]

Correct, it stands for Protestant. This tag is unique in that the religious preference usually doesn't come before the branch of service, but then it's all how the QM stamped them at the time, there's always user error.

[29navy]

Not sure that this format is that unique. Even though there was an "official" format and it varied somewhat throughout the war (religion wasn't even a requirement on the early ones), it seemed that just about every command that issued dogtags did it their own way (e.g., last name first or first name first, branch on the last line, or next to the last line). Or maybe dogtag machine operator didn't think the P would fit on the second to last line.

 

And as a point of clarification, in the Navy, the QM would not be the one typing the dogtags out; they are up on the bridge steering the ship or charting its position. It would be a yeoman or more likely a yeoman striker.

 

Charlie

[Warren]

My father's early (oval) USNR dog tag with finger print did not have the religious preference. But my father's rectangular (notched) dog tag had the religious preference spelled out... Protestant