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Dog tag history:

How the tradition, nickname started

by Katie Lange of Identification in the Philippines — recommended
DOD News the Army outfit all soldiers with the circular disks to
identify those who were severely injured or killed
We all know what dog tags are — those little in action.
oval disks on a chain that service members wear to It took a few years, but in December 1906, the
identify themselves in combat. But have you ever Army put out a general order requiring aluminum
wondered how and when that tradition started, and disc-shaped ID tags be worn by soldiers. The half-
why they’re called dog tags? dollar size tags were stamped with a soldier’s name,
We did some research to find the answers. rank, company and regiment or corps, and they were
attached to a cord or chain that went around the
Origins of the ‘Dog Tag’ nickname neck. The tags were worn under the field uniform.
According to the Army Historical Foundation, The order was modified in July 1916, when a sec-
the term “dog tag” was first coined by newspaper ond disc was required to be suspended from the first
magnate William Randolph Hearst. In 1936, Hearst by a short string or chain. The first tag was to remain
wanted to undermine support for President Franklin with the body, while the second was for burial ser-
D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. He had heard the newly vice record keeping. The tags were given to enlisted
formed Social Security Administration was consid- men, but officers had to buy them.
ering giving out nameplates for personal identifica- North Carolina Museum of History photograph The Navy didn’t require ID tags until May 1917.
tion. According to the SSA, Hearst referred to them These original World War I dog tags belonged By then, all U.S. combat troops were required to
as “dog tags” similar to those used in the military. to Navy and Army veteran Thomas R. Darden. wear them. Exact size specifications were put in Library of Congress photograph
Other rumored origins of the nickname include The tags are tied with twill rope or tape. Darden place, and the tags also included each man’s Army- This dog tag belonged to Union Army Cpl.
World War II draftees calling them dog tags because served in the Navy from 1903-1908 and in the issued serial number. Toward the end of World War Alvin B. Williams of Company F, 11th Regiment
they claimed they were treated like dogs. Another Army as an officer from 1917 through the end I, American Expeditionary Forces in Europe added New Hampshire Volunteers. Hailing from New
of the Great War.
rumor said it was because the tags looked similar to religious symbols to the tags — C for Catholic, H for London, N.H., Williams enlisted on Aug. 11, 1862
the metal tag on a dog’s collar. Hebrew and P for Protestant — but those markings at the age of 18. He was killed May 12, 1864,
near Spotsylvania Court House in Virginia.
Regardless of where the nickname started, the named John Kennedy offered to make thousands of didn’t remain after the war.
concept of an identification tag originated long be- engraved disks for soldiers, but the War Department
fore that. declined. Slight differences
By the end of the Civil War, more than 40 per- During World War I, Navy tags were a bit differ- cluded the fingerprint. By the war’s end, they also
Civil War concerns cent of the Union Army’s dead were unidentified. ent than Army’s. included the second chain that the Army had imple-
mented decades before.
Unofficially, identification tags came about dur- To bring that into perspective, consider this: Of Made of monel — a group of nickel alloys
ing the Civil War because soldiers were afraid no the more than 17,000 troops buried in Vicksburg — they had the letters “U.S.N.” etched on them us- At this time, all military tags included a notch in
one would be able to identify them if they died. National Cemetery, the largest Union cemetery in ing a specific process involving printer’s ink, heat one end. Historians say the notch was there due to
They were terrified of being buried in unmarked the United States, nearly 13,000 of those graves are and nitric acid. If you were enlisted, the etching the type of machine used to stamp the tags. By the
graves, so they found various ways to prevent that. marked as unknown. included your date of birth and enlistment, while 1970s, those machines were replaced, so the tags
Some marked their clothing with stencils or pinned- The outcome of the war showed that concerns officers’ included their date of appointment. The big- issued today are now smooth on both sides.
on paper tags. Others used old coins or bits of round about identification were valid, and the practice of gest difference was the etched print of each sailor’s
lead or copper. According to the Marine Corps, making identification disks caught on. right index finger on the back, which was meant to Dog tags today
some men carved their names into chunks of wood safeguard against fraud, an accident or misuse. Regulations have gone back and forth regard-
strung around their necks. Making it official According to the Naval History and Heritage ing whether the two tags should stay together or be
Those who could afford it bought engraved metal The first official request to outfit service members Command, the ID tags weren’t used in between separated. In 1959, procedure was changed to keep
tags from nongovernment sellers and sutlers — ven- with ID tags came in 1899 at the end of the Spanish- World War I and World War II. They were rein- both dog tags with the service member if they died.
dors who followed the armies during the war. His- American war. Army Chaplain Charles C. Pierce — stated in May 1941, but by then, the etching process But by Vietnam, it was changed back to the original
torical resources show that in 1862, a New Yorker who was in charge of the Army Morgue and Office was replaced with mechanical stamping. regulation of taking one tag and leaving the other.
Meanwhile, the Marines had been required to For Marines, a person’s gas mask size was even-
wear ID tags since late 1916. Theirs were a mix of tually included on the tags.
the Army and Navy styles. By 1969, the Army began to transition from se-
rial numbers to Social Security numbers. That lasted
World War II about 45 years until 2015, when the Army began re-
By World War II, military ID tags were consid- moving Social Security numbers from the tags and
ered an official part of the uniform and had evolved replacing them with each soldier’s Defense Depart-
into the uniform size and shape they are today — a ment identification number. The move safeguarded
rounded rectangle made of nickel-copper alloy. soldiers’ personally identifiable information and
Each was mechanically stamped with your helped protect against identity theft.
name, rank, service number, blood type and reli- Considerable technological advances have come
gion, if desired. An emergency notification name along since Vietnam, including the ability to use
and address were initially included on these, but DNA to identify remains. But despite these advance-
they were removed by the end of the war. They also ments, dog tags are still issued to service members
included a “T” for those who had a tetanus vaccina- today. They’re a reminder of America’s efforts to
tion, but by the 1950s that, too, was eliminated. honor all those who have served — especially those
During World War II, Navy tags no longer in- who made the ultimate sacrifice.

Air Force photograph by Staff Sgt. Jonathan Fowler
Dog tags hang from the Iraq/Afghanistan Dog Tag Memorial at the Museum of the Forgotten Warrior
outside of Beale Air Force Base, Calif., Nov. 10, 2011. The memorial was built to honor all of the
men and women who have been killed during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars as of Oct. 30, 2011. Navy photograph
The memorial contains 6,296 individual dog tags. During World War I, Navy identification tags contained a fingerprint.

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