Help with Dog Tags

February 5, 2011 7:24 AM

Does anyone know if Vietnam era Pilots carried Dog tags, and if so, did they have the same info on as their Army counter parts?? I know that Army service guys, carried (amongst other things) their service number proceeded by RA for regular Army, so would Airforce guys be proceeded by AF?? And What about Marines??? I tried to search the web, but cannot really find the answers to my Questions, any help appreciated
posted by maxmix to Society & Culture (11 answers total)

My father was in the USAF during the Vietnam War. He wasn't a pilot, but did work the boom end of the refueling tankers. He wore dog tags. I don't remember exactly what was on them though.
posted by COD at 7:38 AM on February 5, 2011

I've got Dad's USAF dog tags from Vietnam. They look like this:
LASTNAME,
FIRSTNAME Initial.
SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER
BLOOD TYPE
RELIGIOUS AFFILIATION

It says nothing about branch. Now I'll have to ask the putative father in law (Army pilot in Vietnam) to see his dog tags.

the blood type, incidentally, is incorrect.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:50 AM on February 5, 2011

I meant to say "I've got Dad's USAF dog tags from Vietnam right in front of me.
posted by crush-onastick at 7:51 AM on February 5, 2011

Here's an image of a Vietnam-era pilot's dogtag, consistent with what crush posted.

Yes, it says his religion was "Satanist"--read the caption for the story.
posted by Admiral Haddock at 7:51 AM on February 5, 2011 [1 favorite]

Wow, I'd really want my blood type correct on my dog tags.
posted by randomkeystrike at 8:46 AM on February 5, 2011

USMC dogs tags, at least during the early part of the Vietnam war ('65-67), looked similar to the USAF tags mentioned above with a few differences. The Corps didn't use your Social Security # as an ID at that time.. you had a service #, for example 2108778 was mine. I listed my religion as Druid, and found out a few years later that my blood type was also incorrect.

Marine dog tags had a serrated edge on the bottom. If a fellow Marine was KIA and not immediately evacuated, one dog tag was to be driven between the upper teeth. This was to make identification easier. No DNA way back then...
posted by ScotsLament at 8:48 AM on February 5, 2011

ScotsLament: I thought the "wedging a dog tag into the KIA's teeth" procedure was an urban legend (per Snopes).
posted by Ranucci at 9:50 AM on February 5, 2011

Army dogtags also did not use SSAN, at least up to 1967. Also, only people who voluntarily enlisted had the RA prefix. Draftees had US. National Guard had NG. Reservists had ER. Officers had O. More information here.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 12:06 PM on February 5, 2011

US Air Force pilots definitely wore dog tags (you may have better luck searching for the official term "Identification Tags").

As a data point: it was not uncommon in the early 80s peacetime Air Force for fighter pilots to lace a dogtag into one of their flying boots, the booted foot often (so the conventional wisdom held) being the only large body part recovered after a high-speed crash. I don't know if this was a Vietnam-era combat practice, but it was definitely common less than 10 years later.
posted by Wufpak at 1:15 PM on February 5, 2011

Ranucci I stand corrected. Everybody at the time "knew" that to be true, which is, I guess, the definition of an urban legend.
posted by ScotsLament at 1:21 PM on February 5, 2011

Side note - in the Israeli army, you are given to dogtags when you are drafted.
You leave one on your neck and break the other one along serrated lines in the middle and jam each half into a special slot on the boot made for the dogtags.

The dogtags in Israel have always only had name (in Hebrew) and personal ID number. Soldiers are required to carry around Geneva Convention card with information regarding allergies, bloodtype and shots.
posted by eytanb at 2:07 PM on February 6, 2011