What do they do with dog tags when a soldier dies?
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After a soldier is killed in battle, fellow soldiers or officers can use the two tags to mark the body. One tag goes between the top and bottom front teeth, and the other goes between the toes. Soldiers taken prisoner of war typically are allowed to keep their dog tags, although that may not always be the case.
What do dog tags mean in the military?
The main purpose of the military dog tags is to identify soldiers that are wounded or killed while they are in action. 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.
Why is it called dog tag?
Allegedly, Hearst referred to them as “dog tags.” A more likely, simpler origin is that the term came from World War II draftees who felt they were treated worse than dogs; in protest, they began calling their identification tags “dog tags.” Today, dog tags are a nickel-copper alloy.
How did the military take care of the war dead?
The grim but necessary task of caring the the war dead was the responsibility of the Army’s graves registration units. The very nature of war means that some participants will be killed and others will be wounded, and some estimate the deaths in WWII to be around 85 million.
What do you do with the remains of dead soldiers?
As the centuries passed, what to do with the remains of dead soldiers became more formalized. For those killed on foreign battlefields, a more-or-less swift burial was the norm; bringing the dead home for burial, a process that could take weeks before the advent of airplanes, was not an option.
Can you identify a dead soldier by DNA?
Also, before the introduction of M1940 identification tags, the so-called “dog tags” of World War II, and the more recent science of DNA, being able to identify a particular dead soldier was a haphazard affair.
Should the military retrieve the bodies of the fallen?
For the American military, the past century has put more emphasis on retrieving the bodies of the fallen, even when retrieving the fallen puts others at risk.