Description
That’s right! We make dog tags now. Something the BAE Team feels is under looked for any impression in the hobby. Our dog tags are stamped with an actual period military graphotype machine. The set includes two tags, one long chain and one short chain.
Depending on the year your tags were issued, there are a few variants to choose from. (Currently we do not have the notched dog tag just yet. Those would be appropriate from WW2 to 1967 Vietnam)
Mid Vietnam War US Army Style (Late 1967 to June 1969)
| Line #1 | Last Name | HENDERSON |
| Line #2 | First Name, MI | ANDREW M |
| Line #3 | Service Pre-Fix, Army Service Number | OF12345678 |
| Line #4 | Blood Type | A POS |
| Line #5 | Religious Preference | CATHOLIC |
Later Vietnam War US Army Style (June 1969 to current)
| Line #1 | Last Name | SPEDINI |
| Line #2 | First Name, MI | FRANK D |
| Line #3 | Social Security Number | 123-45-6789 |
| Line #4 | Blood Type | A POS |
| Line #5 | Religious Preference | PROTESTANT |
Vietnam War USMC Style
| Line #1 | Last Name | WALTERS |
| Line #2 | First Initial & Middle Initial | ROGER S |
| Line #3 | Service Number (or Social Security), Blood Type | 1234567 or 123-45-6789 APOS |
| Line #4 | USMC followed by Gas Mask Size | USMC M |
| Line #5 | Religious Preference | HEBREW |
Vietnam War USN Style (NAVY)
| Line #1 | Last Name | PRESCOTT |
| Line #2 | First Initial & Middle Initial, Blood Type | J.M. A POS |
| Line #3 | Pre-fix & Service Number or Social Security | B123456 or 123 45 6789 |
| Line #4 | USN | USN |
| Line #5 | Religious Preference | CATHOLIC |
How to Decide What to Put on your Dog Tag:
The Army Service Number was 8 digits and had one of the following prefixes: RA (Regular Army, volunteer enlisted), US (an enlisted draftee), NG (National Guard), ER (Enlisted Reserve), O or OF (Officer). When using draftee designation “US”, the first number is either a 5 or a 6. 6 was considered a bad number as it was reserved for the “Project 100,000”. The second number is the “Army Area” the draftee was from. 1 or 2 indicated Northeast (after the 2nd Army was absorbed by the 1st Army in the 50’s), 3 South, 4 Southwest, 5 Mid-West, 6 California, Pacific Coast, Hawaii, Alaska. 0 indicated outside the US such as Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, or America Samoa. Of interest, is that US67 numbers indicated one of McNamara’s Project 100,000 draftees who had failed the Armed Forces minimal IQ test, but were drafted anyway to meet the manpower needs.
The Army used the Army Serial Number exclusively until the end of 1967 when the use of Social Security Numbers (9 digits) was introduced. From this time until June 1969, many dog tags used both numbers. After this date the Social Security Number was used exclusively. For Vietnam Era tags, you also see the use of the “broad” religions such as Catholic, Protestant, Hebrew fully spelled out as opposed to the first letter on WWII tags. You also see many tags with specific main stream denominations such as Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist, etc. During this time, if you have no religious preference, the tags are typically stamped “NO PREFERENCE” or left blank.
For a Marines style tag there seems to be many variations that are not as “straight forward” as Army tags. The last name is on the first line and the second line either has both of your initials, or your first name and middle initial. For the third line, the Marines used service numbers which could be 5, 6, or 7 digits. Fourth line is USMC followed by gas mask size. The sizes are XS,S,M,L,XL. Fifth line for religion is fully spelled out such as Protestant, Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Episcopal, Hebrew, etc.
