Dog Tags Styles and examples Part 1

[TomV]

Here's one of mine.
I found it on e-bay and purchased it for only a couple of bucks. I did a background check and noticed that this tag was interesting.

It belonged to Herbert B. Haas who served with the 119th Infantry Regiment, 30th Infantry Division "Old Hickory".
I also found out that the Library of Congress holds a complete interview of this vet. I hope to get hold of a copy.

This are the campaigns he participated in: Normandy, Northern France, Rhineland, Ardennes, Central Europe


Regards!

Tom

[militarymodels]

I have a dog tag that dated T43 but NARA database shows that he was enlisted in 1942. Is it correct that all dog tags show the year of they were being issued not the year of the GI enlisted? Thanks, Lonny

[BEAST]

I have a dog tag that dated T43 but NARA database shows that he was enlisted in 1942. Is it correct that all dog tags show the year of they were being issued not the year of the GI enlisted? Thanks, Lonny

 

 

Lonny,

The T43 number shows that he received his tetanus shot in 1943. That would be fine for a person enlisting in 1942.

[101combatvet]

It's a tetanus immunization date.

[militarymodels]

Thanks gents for your responses. I thought that "T" date determines when they were enlisted.

However, I'm wondering wouldn't they get tetanus immunization right away after they were accepted and doing physical and health check or even during their boot camp?

[gunbarrel]

What does the "AF" stand for?

 

Thanks, in advance.

[KASTAUFFER]

That is an early transitional Air Force dogtag. AF means " Air Force" and the service number is what his old US Army service number was.

 

Kurt

[evstringer]

Also AF would indicate the person was enlisted. Officers serial number would have the prefix "AO".

[gunbarrel]

Thank you, very much!

[evstringer]

You are welcome but something bugs me about that tag. Looking at some of my squadron’s orders, and my own tags, the serial number would be from the 50’s but none of the ones issued to me in the period 1955 – 1958 have “RH” after the blood type.

 

Also I cannot find where FTR was used on ID tags of this period. Possibly the FTR stands for “Fighter” but I never heard of having the airman’s organization type on the tag. Also tags of this period should have Txx where xx is the year the tetanus shot was given.

 

Is it possible this tag was made by one of the places where “authentic” tags can be made?

 

I found one place that suggests the format pictured below for making up new tags. This format is very close to the tag pictured above.

[PATCHRAT]

In reference to your Rh FTR question; I do not believe that this was a required by regulation, only the blood group and type are required. The Rh FTR, I am almost certain stands for Rhesus factor .this is the testing process which determines whether a person’s blood type is Positive or Negative. So adding that to the tag provides no additional information. Rhesus is a species of monkey initially used in research to create the serum to type blood. Typing blood either POS or NEG was discovered in about 1940.

 

The Dog tag Reference is "Dog Tags" by Paul F. Braddock

[gunbarrel]

Patchrat,

 

So, does the book say that this information was put on dog tags at one time?

 

Thanks!

[PATCHRAT]

I do not know, I don’t have access to my copy of the book at the moment. I placed the reference for the book there so you could research it personally. The info I posted is simple analysis on my part. I did not mean to infer that anything I posted was from Paul’s book. Sorry for any confusion.

[evstringer]

……… The Rh FTR, I am almost certain stands for Rhesus factor .this is the testing process which determines whether a person’s blood type is Positive or Negative. So adding that to the tag provides no additional information. ……..

 

I figured that “RH” was meant to stand for the Rhesus blood group system but did not consider FTR meant “Factor” because the medical wording I have seen would note someones blood as “RH Positive” or “Rh(D) Positive instead of “RH Factor Positive”.

 

The FTR seemed to fit better for the “ORG” position on the newly made “authentic” tags.

 

I agree though that whoever created the tag may have intended the abreviation to mean “Rhesus Factor”. I still have doubts about it being used on original tags.

 

As a side note, the tags issued to me in May 1955 just showed “A” for blood type. In September 1957 when my squadron was ordered to deploy to Germany I was issued a new set of tags that show my blood type as “A-POS”.

[reinking71]

Going through some dog tags I picked-up recently and I do not recognize the ASN prefixes. They are: RA, T, and AW.

 

Thanks for the help.

[F50lrrp]

RA=Regular Army

[37thguy]

T= Tetanus shot on date stamped after. Not sure on the AW?

 

Check these two forum topics:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...c=30034&hl=

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...c=30032&hl=

 

Hope these help!

 

Regards

Mark

[Wailuna]

...I do not recognize the ASN prefixes. They are: RA, T, and AW...

These are some interesting dog tags.

 

The "RA" prefix was added to serial numbers of Regular Army enlisted men in July 1947. Note that Harvey Walker's serial number has seven digits, beginning with number "6," indicating that he first enlisted sometime between March 1, 1919 and June 30, 1940, when the Army introduced a new series of eight digit ASNs for enlisted men subsequently entering service for the first time after that date.

 

The "T" prefix was used for flight officer serial numbers after that rank was established in July 1942.

 

And "AW"? I don't know. Richard Malek's seven digit serial number most closely resembles a WWII warrant officer ASN. However, the warrant officer prefix during WWII was "W" (and "RW" was created postwar for warrant officers holding commissions in the active reserve.) More research needed.

[reinking71]

Thanks for the information. I have Barry's original tag with the regular ASN prior to him becoming a flight officer. I was wondering if the AW on Malek's tag may have stood for Army Warrant. I did not catch that Walker's only had 7 digits.

 

Andrew

[Nam67]

Hiya,

I picked these up, at different times, on a certain on-line auction site recently. They were advertised as US Vietnam War era 'dog tags'. I've had a look around on the net and did find one of the men mentioned, much to my suprise, but I couldn't find any mention of the others.

Can anyone tell me if these 'dog tags' are (or even look) genuine please? This is a whole new area of collecting for me (WWI Canadian medals, FS knives & Scottish 16th-18th weapons have been my thing for a long time) and I'd be grateful if I've got something genuine or am going to be learning by a mistake!

Also, can sometime tell what all the 'bits' on the tags mean? I understand the religious part but am confused with things like 'RA' proir to the number on one tag.


And in negative, if it helps!

[hawkdriver]

RA means he was Regular Army

[Bluehawk]

We have numerous dog tags threads in various forums on here over the past years, but I'll be darned if I can find any of them for you.

 

Dog tag questions come up every week, and there is a LOT of information that has been shared about the topic.

 

I just wish I knew a link to put here for you.

[316th FS 324th FG]

When posting dog tags, remember that many include serial numbers on them (one of yours appears too) so you should probably obscure those whenever possible to protect the original service member.

[Nam67]

Hawkdriver - Many thanks!

 

Bluehawk - Yep, I looked around and just couldn't find the area, but I'm sure I did read it here before!

 

316th - I hadn't thought of that. Over here we don't have a problem with our service numbers. Most of us can't remember the wife's birthday but we're always proud we remember our service numbers. And mine was 24747986......and NO, I don't use any of it for my passwords....which is why I normally forget what they are!!

[Bluehawk]

Nam,

 

I'm gonna try again, by using the search terms "Help with..." and such as that. I found almost nothing using the words "Dog Tags."

 

Our good moderator craig_pickrall is trying to place a Dog Tag sub-forum in with the uniforms somewhere.

 

That will help like crazy...