Military dog tags are of great importance in the identification of soldiers in the army. The main purpose of the military dog tags is to identify soldiers that are wounded or killed while they are in action. These dog tags are allotted to the soldiers as a replacement of the plastic printed identity cards because of their resistance to harsh weather conditions and durability. Generally, each soldier is allotted two dog tags. One of them is worn at the neck as a chain and the other is kept inside the shoes of the soldier.
These dog tags are made up of T304 stainless steel. This type of stainless steel contains 18% chromium and 8% nickel to resist corrosion. A common military dog tag contains the details of the soldier like first name, last name and the soldier’s military ID number so that it can act as an identity token for the soldiers. All the details of the soldier mentioned above are embossed into the sheet of metal firmly so that there is a very little probability of the details getting erased. These tags are of great use in the time of war for the identification of a soldier, dead or alive.
There are specialized machines that are required for the manufacture of these tags. That machine is called a dog tags embosser. First of all, a sheet of metal is cut into the desired dimensions. Then, it is fed into the dog tag embosser in order to emboss the required details. Nowadays, there are many advanced types of machinery that provide the facility of automated dog tags printing. CIM (Card Imaging Master) provides some of the best machines to manufacture dog tags and has a wide variety depending on the requirement.
MDT1000 by CIM
CIM also handles government contracts and holds a very good reputation for its high-quality products. CIM is setup for WAWF (Wide Area Workflow) and is also a SAM and ORCA registered vendor. This company also has very long-running government contracts and is one of the most trusted companies in the manufacturer of dog tag embossers. The MDT1000 is our new compact, high-speed metal tag embosser built on durable and proven technology by CIM especially for its requirement in the U.S. military.
M10HE and MDT500
Two of our most iconic units are the M10HE and MDT500 models. Both are excellent solutions for Debossing or Embossing Dog Tags and Medical Alert Tags. Both models are sold to the military as far as Dog Tag needs. One of the main benefits of the M10HE is how it’s portable, robust, and ideal for manual personalization. While the MDT500HE is the most easy to use, fully automated all-in-one embosser on the market.
Contact us today with any embossing or card imaging system product questions.
What do you want others to know about you? What if you had to limit that information to only four lines?
Anyone who has served for any length of time in the military is familiar with those metal ovals worn on a chain around the neck. Officially they are identification tags but almost everyone calls them dog tags. Dog tags have their origin in the Civil War, but only unofficially. Soldiers at that time would often write basic information about themselves on a piece of paper and pin it to their uniform in case they were killed or badly injured. Some units paid for more durable identification. But there was no standardization as to what was included. Today's identification tags identify vital information about the wearer: name, Social Security number, blood type and religious preference.
During World War II there were only three religious categories that could be put on dog tags: P for Protestant, C for Catholic and H for Hebrew (Jewish). Obviously, that proved to be too limiting. "No Religious Preference" and "None" were eventually added; today many faith groups and broad denominations are available, reflecting the diversity of the armed forces. Service members can generally put whatever religious preference they want on their tags, including "Atheist" or "Agnostic." Some even ask for "Jedi" or "Druid." There is no list of official or approved religions--after all, that would constitute government endorsement of a particular religion. But what to put down as a religious preference is serious business, because spirituality is important.
Spirituality is not just a belief in a higher power, but includes beliefs, ethics and values, even a sense of what is fair. Sometimes people say something like, "I'm not religious, but I'm a spiritual person." Spirituality is not limited to a Christian who goes to church every Sunday, a Muslim who prays five times a day while facing Mecca, or a Jew who keeps a kosher kitchen. It's not just the practice of prayer or meditation. "Why am I here?" "What is my purpose in life?" Why is there evil and suffering in the world?" Even atheism and agnosticism are beliefs, and belief matters.
The problem is that some people don't understand how important spirituality is to the whole person. Our outlook and world view affect everything we do, including how we treat others. According to Army Regulation 600-63 (Army Health Promotion), "When a person's actions are different from his or her stated values, the person lives with inner conflict." Claiming "No Religious Preference" is unclear--are you an atheist or agnostic, or a Christian who does not affiliate with any particular denomination?
There are many resources available to explore one's spirituality. One place to begin is the Army Public Health Command Web site, //phc.amedd.army.mil/topics/healthyliving/bh/Pages/SpiritualHealth.aspx, which contains many resources such as the Spiritual Fitness Inventory and the Boosting Resilience through Spirituality brochure.
Other good resources can be found at //csf2.army.mil/fivedimensions.html and //www.spiritfit.army.mil/Home.aspx.
So, what's on your dog tag?
Related Links:
Compehensive Soldier Fitness
U.S. Army Public Health Command
There is no term linked as closely to military service as the term “dog tag.” It is synonymous with the military and for hundreds of years these emblems of sacrifice and service have etched their place into American military culture.
Over the years, much like the uniforms and equipment worn and used by service personnel, dog tags have changed and what goes on military dog tags has also changed. In order to understand what goes on military dog tags today, we have to understand what information has been placed on them in the past. Like the soldiers who wear them, dog tags have evolved over the years.
Civil War
During the Civil War, some battles had casualties numbering in the thousands and soldiers became afraid that they would not be identified if they were killed in action. They wanted to be properly identified and buried in a marked grave if they died, so naturally, military ingenuity kicked in and soldiers devised ways to be identified if they were killed.
What goes on military dog tags during the Civil War? That’s a hard question to answer since there was no uniformity, but back then primarily soldiers stitched their names into their uniforms while others pinned pieces of paper to themselves. Many more used coins or other bits of metals and some men carved their names into chunks of wood strung around their necks. Soldiers with financial resources purchased engraved metals tags from vendors who followed the armies during the war.
When the Civil War ended, more than 40 percent of the Union Army’s dead were unidentified, according to the U.S. Defense Department. The soldiers’ concerns were validated and the use of dog tags on the battlefield took root in military history.
Early 1900s
According to the U.S. Department of Defense, the first official request to issue service members with dog tags was in 1899 at the end of the Spanish-American war. U.S. Army Chaplain Charles C. Pierce, who was in charge of the Army Morgue and Office of Identification in the Philippines, recommended that all soldiers be issued circular disks to identify those who were severely injured or killed in action.
By 1906, the Army required that dog tags be worn by soldiers and thus the Army ushered in a new chapter in military dog tags history. But what goes on military dog tags in the 1900s? The dog tags were stamped with a soldier's name, rank, company and regiment or corps. The tags were worn around the neck with the field uniform, secured by a chain or cord.
Ten years later, the original dog tag order was modified and a second identical disc was required to be worn. The first dog tag would remain with the body of the fallen soldier, while the second was for burial service record keeping.
In 1917, when the U.S. Navy required all their sailors wear dog tags, the War Department finally mandated that all American combat troops have dog tags. Certainly, back then military leaders were asking themselves, “what goes on military dog tags?” So, they decided the tags included the service member’s name, serial number and religious denomination to help with the disposition of remains. The Army, Navy and Marine Corps all had their own variety of dog tags.
World War II and Korean War
Some believe that the term dog tag was a nickname that World War II military draftees called the tin tags because the draftees joked that they were treated like dogs. Another military rumor is that they looked like tags on a dog’s collar. But while the term “dog tag” seems to have caught on around World War II, the concept of identifying soldiers originated long before World War II. During World War II, dog tags did not change much and they became part of the uniform evolving into the size and shape they are today. What goes on military dog tags from the World War II era? The tags were engraved with the name, rank, service number, blood type and religious preference. The name and address of next of kin was also included, as well as immunization information, but that information eventually was removed from dog tags after the war. That’s a lot of information in a little space.
Vietnam and beyond
Dog tags for decades had notches on them. Despite the untrue reasoning for this notch covered in a previous Depot Blog post, the notches existed because of the type of machine used to create them and by the 1970s, those machines became obsolete and the notched dog tags assumed their rightful place in history. What goes on military dog tags from the Vietnam Era? The usual; name, serial number, blood type and religious denomination.
Today, dog tags continue to be issued and they are an important part of battlefield identification. Dog tags at some point transitioned from using serial numbers to social security numbers, and that lasted more than 40 years until 2015 when the services began to remove social security numbers over privacy concerns.
What goes on military dog tags today? Name, blood type, religious denomination, but some still have social security numbers on them. While what goes on military dog tags is the same across the service branches, the information is placed in different order depending on the service branch.
Conclusion
Dog tags were developed at a time when American warfighters desired to be properly identified should they fall in battle. They wanted their ultimate sacrifice to be known. That same purpose has carried on for decades, ensuring the proper and dignified processing of American fallen warriors.
Today, with advancements in DNA science and technology, what goes on military dog tags seems less important, but dog tags are still as much of military culture as they have ever been.
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