USMC Dog tags 1916-2002

[m14ed]

I wish I could ask my dad,

thanks

IT doesn't matter to us.
Hear earned the "TITLE"
BEFORE he got the ID Tags.........

Draft was a fact of life

[rboyton]

Marines must be special, my mom married 3 of them Although the first one was a boxer and he boxed more then his opponents, then 20+ years with my dad, and another 20+ years with the 3rd Marine

Guess I'll put my Research Librarian skills to work tonight and see if I can find that last question somewhere for y'all.

[Rocky C]

. Yes we are special Did you marry a Marine ?.

You said y'all. Do they say that in Caly now ? I know they don't say it in New York.

What was the last question ?

[rboyton]

I say it when I'm in NY I'll be there this summer. Yes, me and some others say y'all in Southern Cali

No Marines for me, sorry. One enlisted (2 tours in Vietnam), One Officer, a wannabe Marine (he was in the Young Marines, a junior form of Marine ROTC or boy scouts) and now another enlisted (all Army).

[Rocky C]

3 husbands all army ? Thank God your Dad was a Marine !!!.

What did you find out in your research for the dog tags ?

[rboyton]

I work in an Academic Library and had a bunch of students doing research...hopefully tonight I'll be able to sit for a spell to work on that question

[rboyton]

Have you guys heard of this site: marines dot **************** dot com ? I joined it a few days ago and I've been creating a "shadowbox" for my dad. It's pretty neat.

Sorry, it takes out the URL, don't know how to put it in other than separate it from the "dots"

Argh, I give up. The ** is all one word (together we served)

[Rocky C]

Yes, a lot of the members here belong to differant sites and that one for sure.

[rboyton]

Okay, here's what I found:
http://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title50/title50a/node546&edition=prelim

and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_surplus

if you click on "the world's biggest clearance sale" it'll take you to a Google article in Popular Mechanics.

[Rocky C]

No not like that. I store like this that are all over the country that reproduce dog tags. That is what we are referring to.

http://www.armynavyshop.com/

[rboyton]

Yes Rocky, it was about the dog tags, but my question did relate to it...when did the Military Surplus stores come about. At first I'd have to say that the machines that did the dog tags were not included in the surplus, most of it was either machinery, cooking supplies or anything in largely bulk usage. Most likely due to the increased number of units deployed and now war was over and they couldn't find places for everything. So, I'm guessing that dog tag surplus stamps may have been a few years after that....so yes, it was quite possible that my father "could" have lost his and had them remade.....OR, as one of the posts mentions that it was the format used by the person who made them for my dad and others during their enlistments.

[Rocky C]

Could be either of the two.

I'm going to go with a remake for now. I'm not giving up on this

[rboyton]

I'm wondering than, how many different types of machines were used in making dog tags and were their formats changeable within one machine?!?

[Rocky C]

There are dozens of differant ones now but here is a picture of one from the Marine Corps Museum on display and yes they were interchangeable for differant formats.

[rboyton]

Ah ha.....so if someone thought they knew what they were doing and weren't sufficiently trained in format, they could've made whatever they wanted....I see now