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thedrifter
07-18-04, 06:29 PM
We're Talkin' <br />
DOG TAGS <br />
<br />
Story by R. R. Keene <br />
<br />
Dog tag photos by <br />
Nancy Lee White Hoffman <br />
<br />
Military identification or &quot;dog&quot; tags are small icons of Americana we all learned to recognize...

thedrifter
07-18-04, 06:31 PM
The order further directed that tags would be stamped and issued at the recruit depots or stamped and issued at posts and stations to which men were transferred. The Corps in its benevolence issued the first two free but made it a point to state, "Issues made to replace those lost will be checked against the man's pay account."

It was also about this time that notched rectangular tags started appearing. How the story about the notch going between the teeth got started is unknown, but it spread and is even depicted in a movie about soldiers fighting in the Pacific.


Master Gunnery Sergeant Leland "Lou" Diamond, a colorful legend, enlisted in 1917. The dog tag above was issued to him prior
to Guadalcanal.
Although looking back we can't recall ever witnessing anyone following this procedure, we believed it. But when we were young Marines in Vietnam, we believed almost anything until the real horror of combat caught up with us. Then we stopped believing in almost everything. We found out, much later, when it no longer mattered, that the notch was to hold the tag in the embossing machine while the information was stamped. Further, only one of the two tags had a notch, since the machine stamped them both at the same time with the front one holding the rear one in place.

As time went by, the string and leather thongs were replaced with two beaded chains made of metal, one 25 inches and the other about 2 1/2 inches. To keep everything from rattling, covers, silencers or sound suppressors could be purchased, although adhesive tape worked best.

Improvements to the embossing machine made the notches obsolete. The tags themselves were no longer required to be Monel, but rather made of "corrosion-resisting material." However, the inventory was large enough that Monel tags were and are still issued. The information packed onto the five lines on a dog tag changed only a little. Tags bore the surname followed by initials, service number (on Jan. 1, 1972, Social Security numbers became service numbers), blood type, "USMC" and "S," "M" or "L" for gas mask size. One's religion was likely to be spelled out or listed as "No Preference." The tetanus inoculation and date were dropped.

Today, dog tags are not only being modernized to keep up with the 21st century but are also going high-tech. The tags of the future will be worth a lot more than the old 15 cents worth of metal that dangled around a leatherneck.

While the tags are still in the experimental and test stages, Marines more than likely will still be issued two. One will be the familiar metal tag, but the second will be made of tough plastic with a microchip, which will house digitized medical information. Project Metropolis, an operational exercise using leathernecks of the I Marine Expeditionary Force, was coordinated by the Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory, Quantico, Va., and a research team from the Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory.

In the exercise, Marines and a research team field-tested the Tactical Medical Coordination System, a prototype for casualty location and evacuation that has been three years in development. TacMedCS uses radio frequency technology, electronics and global-positioning systems to pinpoint a wounded Marine wearing the tag no matter where he is on the battlefield.

The tags also contain and transmit a Marine's medical information and help in the medical evacuation process.

TacMedCS coordinators say it works like "a Federal Express for casualties." They say future conflicts may not have a large medical presence ashore. The focus now is evacuation of the wounded to medical facilities on ships.

Project Metropolis exercises in November of last year and in February of this year saw 300 tags go to Marines in the field, where TacMedCS coordinators were able to track simulated battle casualties and beam vital information to medical control centers a long way from the hostilities.

Immediate care has always been considered key to surviving combat wounds. Initial tests demonstrated that casualties could be provided definitive care sooner. TacMedCS assists in getting this definitive care by using three components: the small electronic tag worn by each Marine, a palm-size computer for the corpsman and a medical display system at the medical control centers.

Each individual plastic tag has an imbedded computer chip containing personal identification and medical and treatment details. The tag also contains standard information: name, rank, Social Security number, organization and location.

The medical information can include vital information entered by a corpsman on the scene, such as injury type, coma score, treatment, triage and blood type. The palm-size computer allows the corpsman to read and program information from a tag read through clothing from up to 4 feet away in less than one second. The corpsman can almost simultaneously send that information to medical centers.

According to officials of the Navy Bureau of Medicine's Research and Development Division, "The benefit to the Marine Corps is twofold. First, Marines and corpsmen can find and move casualties into the medical system faster. Second, the medical personnel can provide an electronic treatment record that can be made available to a variety of medical experts for better diagnosis and improved casualty management."

Military identification tags have come a long way from the metal dog tags with a leather thong worn by leathernecks in France. "What's next," we might ask, "digital smart ID cards?" Yep, they're here!

http://www.mca-marines.org/leatherneck/June01DogTags.htm


Ellie

Arlene Horton
07-18-04, 08:05 PM
Thanks for the interesting info. When I was a "fresh" Woman Marine our platoon was also given that "it's to put in your mouth if you die!" Can't wait to tell my "swabbie" son who was also told the same thing when at "Great Mistakes" RTC. Semper Fi...