No. 110 September, 2009
Harold Ratzburg was born at the start of the Great Depression and raised on a Dairy Farm in Wisconsin. He served four years in the US Air Force in the 50's and was stationed in Germany, where he met his wife Anneliese, who helped get him through College to become a Civil Engineer. After a time as a Highway Engineer and College Instructor, he wound up as a City Engineer of a small town in New Jersey. Twenty four years later he retired to become an old geezer telling old stories on his new fangled computer.
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U.S. Military Dog Tags
By Harold Ratzburg
Dog Tag History
Dog tag use sorta started back in Civil war days, when the organized mayhem of hundreds, sometime thousands of soldiers, were killed in a single day when they marched shoulder to shoulder into the fire of the opposite force who could hardly miss such a massed target. With so many casualties to be disposed of after a battle, little thought was given to record keeping, the main thought was just to get them underground. As a result, it is felt that almost 40 percent of the dead soldiers were not identified and simply listed as "Missing in Action" and their families never knew what happened to them. Soldiers took to writing their name on a piece of paper or cloth and pinning it into their clothing, Some soldiers made their own tags by witting their name on a wooden disk or grinding off one side of a coin and etching their name on it. So the dog tag was born, but it wasn't called a dog tag just yet.
Retail merchants saw an opportunity to make some money, so they started making and selling disks to soldiers, sometimes out of silver or gold, and etched with the soldiers name and unit. And, since dogs at that time wore similar ID tags showing their owners names, naturally, the GIs of that time started calling their ID tags "dog tags" and the name was born.
By the time of WW I, the Army had developed the dog tags to the point that all soldiers were issued two round, aluminum tags that were stamped by hand with their owner's name, rank, serial number, unit and religion, and worn on a cord or tape around the neck.
By the time WW II rolled around, a special machine had been developed to more quickly make up the tags for the millions of servicemen that were to be inducted. The WW II tags were rectangular with rounded ends and a notch to one end. Rumor had it that the notch was put there so the tag could be wedged between the teeth of a dead soldiers mouth by aligning the notch between top and bottom teeth and kicking or hitting the lower jaw. This would reportedly secure the tag firmly between the teeth for future identification. The truth was much less gruesome----the stamping machine required a notch to hold the blank tag in place while it was being stamped.
The WW II tags were first made of brass and changed later to a stainless steel alloy. They were suspended from the neck by a cord, a beaded chain, or a stainless steel wire with a plastic cover. The PX sold more fancy silver chains for the more well to do soldier if he so desired.
During the Vietnam War, stamping machines were used that did not require the notch, so it was eliminated. Soldiers started taping their tags together to hold down the noise which might give away their position, and later on, rubber covers were issued to keep the tags silent. The soldier often would lace one of his dog tags into the laces of his boot, so that if he was dismembered by an explosion, he was more likely to be identified. What a nice pleasant thought that is.
American style dog tags are used all over the world, thanks to the post World War II export of stamping machines and blanks by the USA, I understand that during the two Persian Gulf Wars, the enemy Iraqi soldiers wore dog tags that were identical to their American counterparts----except that the printing was in Arabic.
Dog Tags as a Collectible
Who in the world would want to collect dog tags? Dog tags are very personal items, in that when you wore them in your time in the military service, they were kinda next to your heart at all times, hanging on that chain around your neck. You knew by heart every bit of information that was stamped into them, and they were with you as part of every inspection that you ever stood.
Personal or not, they are part of history, and they define a person in a particular time in history. If you want to get real picky, if you have a WW II vehicle, the dog tag chain and tags hanging from your rear view mirror if you display them there, should really be of that vintage. (OK, OK, not too many collectors are that picky, but I bet that there is at least one or two of them somewhere.)
I met a dog tag collector at a gun show one time, who clamed that he had over 3000 of them in his collection. That is an awesome amount and I wonder just how he filed them or displayed them. Maybe he did neither, and just kept them in a drawer and took them out once in a while and counted them. Remember my article from about 15 months ago in which I pointed out that in this world of collecting-----irrationality reigns supreme. The main thing is, he loves his collection, and no doubt is adding to it ever chance he gets.
Dog tags show up for sale from time to time. At estate sales they usually show up in the glass cases along with the family jewelry, or maybe you find them when you are digging through Grandpa's old desk in the basement. They seem to be showing up more and more at militaria shows at prices around $10.00 for a single tag of the WW II vintage. A pair of tags on a nice silver chain can bring $25 to $35 or even more if they are the early brass kind..
In a way, I kinda hate to see Grandpa's dog tags out there with a price tag on them. My own feeling is that they should be part of a family's heritage, because Grandpa did his part for the history of this country, no matter how minor that part might have been.
But then, whats a family to do with them to show off Grandpa's contribution? Speaking for my own family, when I was a kid, I rescued my Great Grand-daddy's metals from the Wars of 1866 and 1871-72 in Europe from Grandma's "button box" that she kept in her sewing machine. Now they hang on the wall of our family room because old family history is important to me, but of course, not everyone feels the same way.
Since the dog tag chain was always there around your neck, a lot of GIs attached other little things that needed to be handy for use when needed. That good old P-38 ration can opener was hung there by a lot of the GIs, cause meal time came around three times a day, if the troops were lucky under combat conditions and had the rations, they could eat.
Another thing hung on the chains were crucifixes and other religious medals, which were also a great comfort to a solider when things got really hot when the shooting started. Remember that the definition of a "collection" of anything is that you have three or more of the same thing. So guess what, I have a small collection of dog tag sized, religious items that I accumulated from somewhere, and now that it is started, it will probably grow as I poke around at estate sales.
(Here is an interesting personal aside to this story of things you carry with you around your neck. One of our Ratzburg family heirlooms is a small golden cross which has a dent in it. That cross was worn by my little Frau, Anneliese, as a kid as she sweated out the bombing raids in Germany during WW II. She hated to get out of her warm bed at 2 AM and run to the bomb shelter three or four times a week for false alarms, so she would frequently fib to her mother when Mother pounded on her door to get up and get dressed. She would tell Mother that she would come a little later, and then snuggle back under the bed covers and go back to sleep. She did this one night and awoke later when the British Air Force in their Lancaster bombers roared over Ulm on their way to bomb Munich, and she realized that tonight could be the night that her hometown could be hit. Scared half to death, she prayed with the cross between her teeth, that if the Lord would prevent the bombing that night, she would never again fail to run to the bomb shelter. She bit down so hard on the cross that she dented it and that dented cross is still around as a reminder of the not so good old days back when. The cross has already been passed along to our Grand Daughter as part of the Ratzburg family history and heritage. The night----that Anneliese was so afraid of, occurred later on December 17, 1944, when 3/4 of the town was destroyed or damaged but that is another story, maybe for another time. I don't really know what this little story has to do with collecting----but I thought you might enjoy it.)
If you would like more info on dog tags and you have a little computer savey, try Google-ing "dog tags". Enough information will pop up to keep you occupied for a long long time.
As to the collector of dog tags (in volume) with over 3000 in his collection----I feel for the widow someday when she may have to say to herself----"What am I gonna do with all this stuff????" It beats the heck out of me.
copyright 2009 by Harold Ratzburg
By Harold Ratzburg
Dog Tag History
Dog tag use sorta started back in Civil war days, when the organized mayhem of hundreds, sometime thousands of soldiers, were killed in a single day when they marched shoulder to shoulder into the fire of the opposite force who could hardly miss such a massed target. With so many casualties to be disposed of after a battle, little thought was given to record keeping, the main thought was just to get them underground. As a result, it is felt that almost 40 percent of the dead soldiers were not identified and simply listed as "Missing in Action" and their families never knew what happened to them. Soldiers took to writing their name on a piece of paper or cloth and pinning it into their clothing, Some soldiers made their own tags by witting their name on a wooden disk or grinding off one side of a coin and etching their name on it. So the dog tag was born, but it wasn't called a dog tag just yet.
Retail merchants saw an opportunity to make some money, so they started making and selling disks to soldiers, sometimes out of silver or gold, and etched with the soldiers name and unit. And, since dogs at that time wore similar ID tags showing their owners names, naturally, the GIs of that time started calling their ID tags "dog tags" and the name was born.
By the time of WW I, the Army had developed the dog tags to the point that all soldiers were issued two round, aluminum tags that were stamped by hand with their owner's name, rank, serial number, unit and religion, and worn on a cord or tape around the neck.
By the time WW II rolled around, a special machine had been developed to more quickly make up the tags for the millions of servicemen that were to be inducted. The WW II tags were rectangular with rounded ends and a notch to one end. Rumor had it that the notch was put there so the tag could be wedged between the teeth of a dead soldiers mouth by aligning the notch between top and bottom teeth and kicking or hitting the lower jaw. This would reportedly secure the tag firmly between the teeth for future identification. The truth was much less gruesome----the stamping machine required a notch to hold the blank tag in place while it was being stamped.
The WW II tags were first made of brass and changed later to a stainless steel alloy. They were suspended from the neck by a cord, a beaded chain, or a stainless steel wire with a plastic cover. The PX sold more fancy silver chains for the more well to do soldier if he so desired.
During the Vietnam War, stamping machines were used that did not require the notch, so it was eliminated. Soldiers started taping their tags together to hold down the noise which might give away their position, and later on, rubber covers were issued to keep the tags silent. The soldier often would lace one of his dog tags into the laces of his boot, so that if he was dismembered by an explosion, he was more likely to be identified. What a nice pleasant thought that is.
American style dog tags are used all over the world, thanks to the post World War II export of stamping machines and blanks by the USA, I understand that during the two Persian Gulf Wars, the enemy Iraqi soldiers wore dog tags that were identical to their American counterparts----except that the printing was in Arabic.
Dog Tags as a Collectible
Who in the world would want to collect dog tags? Dog tags are very personal items, in that when you wore them in your time in the military service, they were kinda next to your heart at all times, hanging on that chain around your neck. You knew by heart every bit of information that was stamped into them, and they were with you as part of every inspection that you ever stood.
Personal or not, they are part of history, and they define a person in a particular time in history. If you want to get real picky, if you have a WW II vehicle, the dog tag chain and tags hanging from your rear view mirror if you display them there, should really be of that vintage. (OK, OK, not too many collectors are that picky, but I bet that there is at least one or two of them somewhere.)
I met a dog tag collector at a gun show one time, who clamed that he had over 3000 of them in his collection. That is an awesome amount and I wonder just how he filed them or displayed them. Maybe he did neither, and just kept them in a drawer and took them out once in a while and counted them. Remember my article from about 15 months ago in which I pointed out that in this world of collecting-----irrationality reigns supreme. The main thing is, he loves his collection, and no doubt is adding to it ever chance he gets.
Dog tags show up for sale from time to time. At estate sales they usually show up in the glass cases along with the family jewelry, or maybe you find them when you are digging through Grandpa's old desk in the basement. They seem to be showing up more and more at militaria shows at prices around $10.00 for a single tag of the WW II vintage. A pair of tags on a nice silver chain can bring $25 to $35 or even more if they are the early brass kind..
In a way, I kinda hate to see Grandpa's dog tags out there with a price tag on them. My own feeling is that they should be part of a family's heritage, because Grandpa did his part for the history of this country, no matter how minor that part might have been.
But then, whats a family to do with them to show off Grandpa's contribution? Speaking for my own family, when I was a kid, I rescued my Great Grand-daddy's metals from the Wars of 1866 and 1871-72 in Europe from Grandma's "button box" that she kept in her sewing machine. Now they hang on the wall of our family room because old family history is important to me, but of course, not everyone feels the same way.
Since the dog tag chain was always there around your neck, a lot of GIs attached other little things that needed to be handy for use when needed. That good old P-38 ration can opener was hung there by a lot of the GIs, cause meal time came around three times a day, if the troops were lucky under combat conditions and had the rations, they could eat.
Another thing hung on the chains were crucifixes and other religious medals, which were also a great comfort to a solider when things got really hot when the shooting started. Remember that the definition of a "collection" of anything is that you have three or more of the same thing. So guess what, I have a small collection of dog tag sized, religious items that I accumulated from somewhere, and now that it is started, it will probably grow as I poke around at estate sales.
(Here is an interesting personal aside to this story of things you carry with you around your neck. One of our Ratzburg family heirlooms is a small golden cross which has a dent in it. That cross was worn by my little Frau, Anneliese, as a kid as she sweated out the bombing raids in Germany during WW II. She hated to get out of her warm bed at 2 AM and run to the bomb shelter three or four times a week for false alarms, so she would frequently fib to her mother when Mother pounded on her door to get up and get dressed. She would tell Mother that she would come a little later, and then snuggle back under the bed covers and go back to sleep. She did this one night and awoke later when the British Air Force in their Lancaster bombers roared over Ulm on their way to bomb Munich, and she realized that tonight could be the night that her hometown could be hit. Scared half to death, she prayed with the cross between her teeth, that if the Lord would prevent the bombing that night, she would never again fail to run to the bomb shelter. She bit down so hard on the cross that she dented it and that dented cross is still around as a reminder of the not so good old days back when. The cross has already been passed along to our Grand Daughter as part of the Ratzburg family history and heritage. The night----that Anneliese was so afraid of, occurred later on December 17, 1944, when 3/4 of the town was destroyed or damaged but that is another story, maybe for another time. I don't really know what this little story has to do with collecting----but I thought you might enjoy it.)
If you would like more info on dog tags and you have a little computer savey, try Google-ing "dog tags". Enough information will pop up to keep you occupied for a long long time.
As to the collector of dog tags (in volume) with over 3000 in his collection----I feel for the widow someday when she may have to say to herself----"What am I gonna do with all this stuff????" It beats the heck out of me.
copyright 2009 by Harold Ratzburg