Military personnel have different ways to identify and distinguished them as a part of the Military. This may come in form of insignias from different branches, patches, logos and the likes. This goes with their pride of being a part of the Military and being able to serve our country and its people.

One of the distinguishing marks of the Military is that personnel wear a “Dog Tag”. Dog Tag is the informal name for identification tags worn by military personnel.  Wearing of dog tags is required to soldiers in the field. Since dog tags come in two pieces, there are  two identical copies of information. In an event that the wearer is killed, the first tag is collected for notification, while the second one remains with the body when the condition of the battle does not allow casualties to be recovered immediately.

History of Dog Tags

• The Civil War provided the first recorded incident of American soldiers ensuring their identities would be known in case of death. The methods vary depending on the soldier’s initiative.
• The commercial sector saw the demand for identification method and provided products. E.g. “Soldier’s Pin”—made of silver and gold with inscriptions of individual name and unit designation.
• In 1899, the first official advocacy of issuing identification took place. Chaplain Charles C. Pierce (tasked to establish the Quartermaster Office of Identification in the Philippines, recommended inclusion of an “identity disc”, this is to answer the concerns for the need for standard identification.
• The Army Regulations of 1913 made identification tags mandatory, and by 1917, all combat soldiers wore aluminum discs on chains.
• By World War II, the circular disk was replaced by the oblong shape familiar to us today, generally referred to as “dog tags”.

These are some of the formats use by the Military:

USAF Format 1

• Surname, first name, middle initial
• Social Security Number, followed by “AF” indicating branch of service.
• Blood Group
• “blank”
• Religion

USAF Format 2

• Surname
• First name and middle initial
• Social Security Number, followed by “AF” indicating branch of service.
• Blood Group
• Religion

USMC

• Surname
• First and middle initials, blood group
• Social Security Number with no dashes, but spaced
• Branch (“USMC”):*Gas mask size
• Religious preference (or “NO PREFERENCE”) or medical allergy if red medical tag.

US Navy

• Surname, first name, middle initial
• “blank”
• Social Security Number with no dashes or spaces followed immediately by branch blood group
• “blank”
• Religion

US Army

• Surname
• First name, middle initial
• Social Security Number
• Blood type
• Religion

USCG

• Surname, first name, middle initial
• Social Security Number with no dashes or spaces followed immediately by branch
• blood group
• “blank”
• Religion

Trivia: The U.S Army stopped using the term “Dog tags” and replaced it with “I.D tags” .

There are other ways to identify a Military personnel. And more than that we should commemorate the services that they have rendered for us. The issuance of “dog tags” because of the need for identification  in case of death in war, shows us that Military personnel have their lives at stake for the country.

A great idea to honor Military personnel is through plaques that would suit them and their area of command, specialty or service. Click this to view the different plaques available. Whether it is a Deployment Plaques, Tail Flash Plaque, Shadow Box, Insignia Badge Plaque and more. The plaques could also be personalized according to your preference.