How do you identify a dog tag?

Answer 1

Q1: How do you identify the type of dog-tag for each country?

Each country used different types of dogtags. The US Army was a rectangle stamped metal that had rounded corners and rolled edges. The US Marines still used round dogtags. The Army dogtag worn during training had the users name and next of kin and home town. The dogtage worn in combat only had Name, Serial Number, Blood Type, Religion and date of Tetnus shot.

The Germans used Oval metal tags that were perforated so they could be broken in half. The soldier's Unit and ID No. were the only things engraved on it.

The Italian dogtag was a brass stamped metal that were two tags meshed together. The two tags could be pulled apart. They also had a ID tag that was a printed paper record of their service that was held in a metal container.

Q2: How do you identify a US Soldier with his dogtag?

If you want to research the soldier's military service using only his dogtag, this can be difficult. You can look up the soldier's enlistment Records on the NARA site. This will only tell you where and when he enlisted.

The Army Serial Number assigned to the soldier also does not tell you much about him except where he enlisted. That info does not tell you where he trained or what unit he was in. The Serial Number may distinguish if he was an Officer or National Guard or Regular Army. You may be able to research his records further after knowing his serial number. However, you may have to write to the NARA for his records.