The military identity tag (unofficial name in English:Dog tag) is an element of the uniform that provides the identity of the wearer, in the event that the circumstances of his death (disfigurement, disappearance of comrades, etc. .) would compromise the certainty of its identification.
It was only during the second half of the 19th century that attention was paid to finding a way to systematically identify the dead on the battlefield. The first initiatives did not come from the military but from civilians (in the United States, for example, during the Civil War, 1861-1865).
On the German side, it would seem that the idea of providing soldiers with a means of identification came from a craftsman in Berlin who allegedly proposed to the Ministry of War to equip his men with an identity plate, resuming more or less the example of the "dog plate" (a kind of tax stamp proving that the master of the animal had indeed paid the tax). The identity discs were subsequently called “dog tags” in military jargon (United States, England, Australia, etc.). In French, this translates to "dog tag" due to their resemblance to dog tags.
Various formats exist around the world, but in the US military, dog tags include last name, first name, social security/military ID number, blood type and religion.
This information is inscribed on a small piece of metal which is worn on a metal chain around the neck. During World War II, the date of the soldier's last tetanus vaccination was added. The plate is mainly used for the identification of dead and wounded.
The wearing of dog tags is required at all times by soldiers in the field. The plate always consists of two parts. One, easy to remove, is quickly picked up by the deceased soldier's superior. It carries information allowing the office to take stock of the losses even if the body has not been recovered. The second part remains permanently with the body (it is often buried with it, possibly nailed to the coffin). It contains the information necessary for the body management service (religion, date of birth).
On the American model (the best known thanks to the films) the part remaining on the body is attached to a chain placed around the neck of the soldier, the removable part is attached by a small chain (easy to break) to the chain holding the other part. The percussion between the two plates causes a rattle that the soldiers eliminate by surrounding them with a rubber band, as can be seen in the last photo on this page.
On another more common model (used among others by the French, Canadian, Israeli army ....) it is a perforated plate which can be easily broken so that the officer can recover his part and leave the other which is connected to the chain.
History
US Navy Soldier's Military Dog Tag (WW1), with (painful) acid etching test of thumb print (on reverse)
Plate ID card of an American soldier, model used during the Second World War.
During the Civil War (1861-1865), some soldiers attached paper notes with their addresses to the backs of their coats. Other identifications were used by soldiers on their backpacks or on the belt buckle holder.
Badge makers noticed a market and began supplying badges periodically. Their plates were usually shaped to indicate an army corps, engraved with the soldier's name and unit.
Metal plaques were also made of brass, pierced with a hole, and usually were marked (on one side) with an eagle or shield and phrases such as "war for union" or "freedom, freedom, freedom." 'union, and equality'. The other side bears the soldier's name, unit and sometimes a list of battles in which he participated.
A New Yorker named John Kennedy wrote to the US Army in 1862, offering to supply records for the entire Federal Army. The National Archives still retains the letter as well as the reply, a refusal without explanation.
The U.S. Army first authorized dog tags in General Order no. 204 from the War Department, dated December 20, 1906:
"An aluminum dog tag, the size of half a silver dollar and of suitable thickness, stamped with the name, rank, company, regiment of the bearer, shall be carried by every officer and enlisted man in the army and whenever the soldier is on the battlefield.
The plate is to be hung around the neck, under clothing, by a rope or a strap passed through a small hole. It is prescribed as part of the uniform and when not in use as above will usually be kept in the possession of the owner.
The plate will be issued by the War Department free of charge to enlisted men”
The army changed the rule on July 6, 1916, so that all men have two plaques:one remains with the body and the other must go to the person responsible for the burial for record keeping. In 1918, the army adopted and distributed the serial number system, and the name.
Serial numbers are stamped on the dog tags of all enlisted men. (Serial number 1 was assigned to enlisted man Arthur B. Crean of Chicago during his fifth enlistment period).
During 1969, the army adopted the social security number for identification of personnel. Instead of two plates, some national armies use only one with a half that can be easily separated.
There is a myth circulating about the gash in one end of US Army dog tags during World War II. It has been claimed that the function of this notch would have been to enable a soldier who found one of his comrades on the battlefield to place the plate belonging to the latter between his teeth in order to ensure that the plate would stay with the body, which would have allowed its identification. In reality, the notch is simply used to hold the plate in place on the machine which duplicates the information for the medical service "the addressograph model 70".
After World War II, the Marine Department adopted dog tags used by the Army and Air Force; a one-size-fits-all shape and size thus became the American standard.
During the Vietnam War, soldiers were allowed to place rubber silencers on their dog tags so that the enemy would not hear the metallic noise. Others attached tape to both plates. Still others have chosen to wear one plate around the neck and the other plate on the shoelace.
Since the 1980s, a change has been made in the way dog tags are printed. Prior to this period, the system was deep-drawn by hollow-type printing. This so-called "indent" version is found on the models of the Second World War, the Korean War and that of Vietnam. During the 1980s, the army adopted the relief engraved printing called "emboss" which allows a much clearer reading of the information marked on the plates. This type of engraving is still used in the US military.
Dog tags are traditionally part of the items used to honor soldiers who died on the battlefield. The mounted soldier's rifle with bayonet is held vertically, with the helmet on top. The dog tags are then attached to the handle or the guard of the gun.
Recently, the military stopped calling the plates dog tags and adopted the name ID tags. It seems that, in the 1990s, enlisted trainees complained that the term dog tags was offensive. required]
In popular culture
Civilian-made military dog tags, a fashionable accessory in the 1990s.
Since the 1990s, dog tags have entered popular culture, thanks to cinema and more particularly to war films. The subject of the Vietnamese conflict remains an example of the use of dog tags in cinema. Since the cinema tries to reconstruct military conflicts in a realistic way, productions like Platoon, Apocalypse Now and others give pride of place to dog tags, which have become accessories to certain war films.
This popularization of dog tags by the cinema generated a commercial demand. This is the reason why, for many years now, you can obtain in the majority of military surplus replicas engraved on demand for a few euros. If at first it was only a request from Militaria admirers, dog tags have since become a fashion accessory in their own right.
Versions of dog tags have found themselves around the necks of many stars as a fashion accessory:David Beckham, Eminem, Will Smith and many rap personalities have popularized the wearing of dog tags. Gucci produced some in solid silver as jewelry for men and in a smaller version for women.