I wonder how many veterans kept their dog tags after leaving service. I have mine (photo), hanging on the wall near my desk, so I see them every day. While I was in the Army, I learned from others ways to make wearing the tags easier and more comfortable. For example, as you can see in the photograph, I used the outside nylon shell of a single strand of parachute cord to cover the chain itself. Good way to keep neck hairs from getting painfully torn out. And, I bought rubber covers at the PX to keep them from rattling around when I moved. Sweat got underneath that cover, and I can still see today stains on the metal caused by body-salt and whatever grime I might have gotten into. Last Friday I received an email from the daughter of a WWII veteran who told me about a lost dog tag being found recently in France, that belonged to a guy who served with her father during the war. Unfortunately, the owner passed away in the 1970s but his brother (who was in the same unit) is still alive and is trying to secure the lost tag and bring it back home where it belongs. She sent me a photo of the tag, and I noted it listed the name, rank, serial number and mailing address of the owner. Mine just has my name SSN, blood type and religion. We used to joke that at some point in time, the Army was going to embed a computer chip under our skin, that contained everything about us. Perhaps we're closer to that today than many of us older veterans realize.
