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Dog Tags Styles and examples Part 1


Ricardo
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There is WWII tag. Came with named GCM and some another small things.

Who can explain me second line, especially T 43-44 AB

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There is WWII tag. Came with named GCM and some another small things.

Who can explain me second line, especially T 43-44 AB

 

T43-44 should be his tetnus (sp) innoculation dates. His blood type is AB. I don't know what the B is below that , as that would be his religion.

 

-Ski

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T43-44 should be his tetnus (sp) innoculation dates. His blood type is AB. I don't know what the B is below that , as that would be his religion.

 

-Ski

 

 

BAPTIST?

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T43-44 should be his tetnus (sp) innoculation dates. His blood type is AB. I don't know what the B is below that , as that would be his religion.

 

-Ski

 

 

Thanks for your help. It's not B below, there is P

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hello evrybody,

 

I have this dog tags on my collection and i have a question about the religion of this GI. The religion is note by a "M". What is "M" stands for please ? think.gif

 

2mnq0aq.jpg

 

Thank you for your answer. thumbsup.gif

 

Best regards from France. Tim

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Methodist?

 

Erwin

That would be my guess too. C(atholic), P(rotestant) and H(ebrew) are the typical religions seen on WW2 tags. I've never seen one with an M, I'd love to find one though! I've also seen some tags with an LU for Lutheran.
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Here's a couple more that I've added recently.

This one is especially interesting to me since Endicott is where I grew up. This man owned a jewelry shop until just recently which I'd drive past sometimes.


A man from Utah who was a music teacher in his pre-war civilian life. It's interesting that the NOK address lacks a street address.


Aside from the '44 tetanus date added onto it, there's two mistakes that were made on this tag. His blood type and the first letter in his wife's name had to be stamped over a second time. Maybe the guy who made it was new to the job. :unsure:

A little hard to see, but this one's from a North Carolina man.

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rrobertscv

Didn't the Marine Corp. do it on later tags to indicate gas mask size S,M,L. It would not explain this one though. think.gif

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How about Atheist, and Muslim? Did they have denotations for those faiths as well?

 

Patriot

Muslim was not one of the standard options, but after seeing this tag and the LU ones it's possible at least someone had a tag that said

'MU' or something along those lines. There wasn't a letter designation for atheists. I imagine anyone without a religion designated would be treated as an atheist. Not all tags have one.

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Salvage Sailor

During the Vietnam era, there was a designation for 'non-denominational' (a euphemism for 'atheist' or 'agnostic')

 

This was 'NO PREF' for No Preference

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This set of Coast Guard tags was on ebay for $20 buy it now, a very good price. When they came in the mail it was another set of tags from the same man, only 1947 dated instead of 1943. I emailed the seller and he sent me the correct pair the next day, and said to keep the '47 pair, too. Not bad for $20!

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I know the notch on early dog tags was to hold the blank still in the stamping machine, but today a vet told me something entirely different. He was the husband of a woman who had a stall at an antique store I was at and we started chatting while she was putting out new items. He told me he was in the Army in the 50's and that the purpose of the notch was to put between the corpse's front teeth and jaw. Then you'd kick the jaw and jam the tag up into the skull so it'd be there later for the autopsy. :blink:

 

I've heard about using the notch to keep the mouth open to allow gasses to escape, which is just a myth according to everything I've read, but never this story. I'd hate to say he was lying to me, but I just can't believe that story. I've had people get kind of defensive and suspicious when I say I collect dog tags before, but the man I was talking to didn't seem bothered by it. :unsure:

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I have heard this before and it sounds like a load of crap.

 

Besides, I don't think it would work very well. :blink:

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Bob Hudson
I know the notch on early dog tags was to hold the blank still in the stamping machine, but today a vet told me something entirely different. He was the husband of a woman who had a stall at an antique store I was at and we started chatting while she was putting out new items. He told me he was in the Army in the 50's and that the purpose of the notch was to put between the corpse's front teeth and jaw. Then you'd kick the jaw and jam the tag up into the skull so it'd be there later for the autopsy. :blink:

 

I've heard about using the notch to keep the mouth open to allow gasses to escape, which is just a myth according to everything I've read, but never this story. I'd hate to say he was lying to me, but I just can't believe that story. I've had people get kind of defensive and suspicious when I say I collect dog tags before, but the man I was talking to didn't seem bothered by it. :unsure:

 

 

Myself and another collector just last Friday were talking about how our military veteran dads each told us the same myth about the notch. I've wondered if this myth was spread mostly by guys like my dad who served in post-WWII era and were never in a combat zone?

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I've wondered if this myth was spread mostly by guys like my dad who served in post-WWII era and were never in a combat zone?
That's a possibility I never thought of. I don't know if he ever saw combat, but if he really believed they were "wedged up into the skull" then he wouldn't have been lying to me. Funny how we can sometimes know more about certain military stuff then the men who served!
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Bob Hudson
That's a possibility I never thought of. I don't know if he ever saw combat, but if he really believed they were "wedged up into the skull" then he wouldn't have been lying to me. Funny how we can sometimes know more about certain military stuff then the men who served!

 

And not to sound disrespectful, but using a dogtag like this would have resulted in a lot of gap-toothed decedents as this most likely would have broken a lot of teeth.

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The teeth use for the dogtag was what I was told it was for since I was a kid. You'd think that there's gotta be someting to it...

 

-SKi

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no no no! Why does this keep circulating...

 

I have read far too many GRS items, and know two very detailed researchers that have looked into the minutae of burials. It is a myth.

 

This includes interview with former GRS veterns who thought the idea rediculous.

 

There IS a second use for the notch, although minor. When a soldier is buried one tag stays with him, the other used on the temporoary gravemarker (AKA wooden cross) on such crosses to hold the tag horizontal you nail thorugh the hole, and can use the notch for added stability so people don't start bending the tag up to read it.

 

Even worse is the guys who claim you remove the tag to prove the fellow is dead. NO ONE removed any tags until the body was in the hands of a proper GRS group. And even with both tags they still burried a small bottle bearing a paper with body information inside with the corpse (which supposedly they ran short of in the ETO and used .50 shells.)

 

fun GRS fact- in WW1 there were ONLY crosses issues for burials, so the decision was for jewish soldiers to just remove the cross peice and use the upright piece.

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How many people can actually open their mouths wide enough to fit a whole dog tag, length wise, into their mouth? I sure can't. Despite these uses being myths to begin with there's plenty of reasons they couldn't possibly even be true.

 

And just for the record I wasn't questioning whether it was true or not, just why a vet of all people would tell me that.

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