Why do soldiers wear 2 dog tags?

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.

In the days long before military dog tags were even a thought, U.S. Army officers at the attack on Confederate fortifications at Cold Harbor, Virginia, noticed troops sewing their names into their jackets. After more than three years of bloody fighting, everyone knew how dangerous the coming battle would be.

They were about to attack six miles of zigzagged earthworks that would expose them to withering cross-fires. The men wanted to give the Army a way to identify their bodies once the shooting was over.

Throughout the war, attempts to give soldiers ways to identify themselves were varied. Units used circular discs and "soldier pins" in an effort to identify and record the names of the men in their ranks -- but only one per person. None of these efforts were uniform, however, and tens of thousands of soldiers killed in action were buried in mass graves or marked as unknowns.

Other soldiers fixed paper identification tags to themselves and their belongings. Others fashioned crude identification markers from wood. Still, 42% of Civil War dead remain unidentified, according to U.S. military historians.

In 1906, General Order #204 required the issue of an aluminum disc the size of a half-dollar coin to be worn around troops' necks. Though it came after the Spanish-American War, it was a more uniform way of identifying soldiers and a step in the right direction -- but still only issued one at a time.

Modern Military Dog Tags

By the beginning of World War I, the "dog tag" as we know it began to take shape. Soldiers deploying to fight in the trenches of WWI were given two coin-like metal discs, each marked with their name. They wore them into combat and, if they were killed, one coin stayed on their remains.

The other marked their coffin.

In World War II, identification tags started to look more like today's standard-issue dog tags. They were metal and rectangular, with a notch in a lower corner. The soldier's information was imprinted on the metal tag. That notch was used to align the metal plate on the machine that embossed the information.

The notch became the center of U.S. military troops' first myth around their dog tags. Common belief held that a medic would take one of the fallen soldier's tags and put it in his mouth, using the notch to line up the tag with his front teeth. Then, the medic or doctor would kick his jaw shut over the tag to ensure it stayed in place, according to the myth.

During the Korean War, the second tag was put on a much shorter chain, attached to the main chain, for a similar reason. But it wouldn't be put in the mouth of the deceased. Instead, it was used as a toe tag. In the Vietnam era, combat troops started to lace their second tag in their boots, the way United States Marines wear them today.

Notched dog tags were phased out by the 1970s, when the machines that required notches were replaced with more advanced embossing machines. Aluminum tags gave way to stainless steel.

Today, dog tags aren't as necessary for identification purposes, given the advances in DNA technology, along with more detailed recordkeeping by the U.S. military. Identifying remains is a more detailed process than simply relying on the service member's dog tags.

But still, dog tags remain an important symbol of military service, one that connects today's troops to the traditions of the past.

-- Blake Stilwell can be reached at . He can also be found on Twitter @blakestilwell or on Facebook.

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The Depot

If there is one issued piece of equipment given to military personnel that is swirling with urban legend and myths, it is dog tags.

The origins of the dog tag are unknown. Some military historians believe the practice started with the Roman Empire. Like most good military ideas, it is not surprising the Romans would be given credit for developing the dog tag.

Other researchers believe the practice of tagging military personnel started to take shape during the Civil War when soldiers wrote notes with their personal information on them so they could be identified if they became a casualty. The U.S. Defense Department supports the argument that dog tags, officially known as identification tags, came about during the Civil War because soldiers were afraid of being unidentified and buried in unmarked graves. Soldiers marked their clothing, pinned tags of paper and cloth onto their uniforms, used old coins or bits of metals to identify themselves, and some men carved their names into wood pieces strung around their necks.  Their concerns were legitimate. By the end of the Civil War, more than 40 percent of the Union Army’s dead were unidentified. For example, of the more than 17,000 troops buried in Vicksburg National Cemetery, nearly 13,000 graves are marked as unknown. After the Civil War, the U.S. military embraced better practices of casualty identification. At the end of the Spanish American War, service members were issued identification tags in 1899 after U.S. Army Chaplain Charles C. Pierce, an officer in charge of morgue operations in the Philippines, recommended the Army outfit all soldiers with the disks to identify those who were injured or killed.  The U.S. Army started to issue the tags in 1906. The tags included personal biographical information that could be used to identify a casualty. The half-dollar size tags were stamped with a soldier's name, rank, company and regiment or corps, and they were attached to a cord or chain that went around the neck. The tags were worn under the field uniform. 

According to the Defense Department, in July 1916, the U.S. Army amended its initial order and required a second disc. Why two dog tags? The first tag was to remain with the body, while the second was for burial service record keeping. Like all things military, it is likely the military figured out the need for two dog tags amidst operations. Remember, Donald Rumsfeld’s famous words: “You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time.”

The U.S. Navy didn't require dog tags until May 1917. By then, all U.S. combat troops were required to wear them. Toward the end of World War I, American Expeditionary Forces in Europe added religious symbols to the tags. 

During the Korean War, the answer to the question why two dog tags got a new answer. One of the tags was put on a much shorter chain and attached to the main chain. However, it was never placed in the mouth of a deceased soldier as military folklore suggests. Instead, the tag on the shorter chain was used as a toe tag when a soldier was killed and his body was being processed. At the end of the 1950s, after the Korean War, procedures changed to keep both dog tags with the service member if they died.

In Vietnam, combat troops started to lace their second tag in their boots. So, the answer to the question, why two dog tags, was for the most part, the same reasoning for issuing two dog tags in Korea. One stayed with the body, the other was used as a toe tag.

Regulations have vacillated regarding how the two tags should be used. Many still ask, why two dog tags? And should the tags stay together or be separated?

Today, service personnel are issued two dog tags on a long and short chain, but given the advances made in DNA forensics and in utilizing medical profiles and information to identify the fallen, the role of the dog tag is still important, but only a piece of the process of identifying our nation’s war casualties.

Why two dog tags? Because as a nation we need to ensure that those who fight for our country get the recognition they deserve. They are entitled to be known to us and the world and if two tags help, then we owe them that.