USMC Vietnam Dog Tag Layout

How USMC Vietnam Dog Tags were stamped

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Although the US Marines used the same style of dog tags in Vietnam as the US Army, they had different information stamped on them. If you want to know what was stamped on USMC dog tags in Vietnam, the following will answer that question.

usmc-vietnam-tag

 

Line Details: Line Example:
 Last Name  DOE
 First Name, Middle Initial or Just Initials
 JOHN J or J.J.
 Service Number, Blood Group
 123-45-67 B POS
 USMC and Gas Mask Size
 USMC L
 Religion  NO PREFERENCE            

 

Dog Tag Layout

 

The 1st line of the tags contains the soldiers last name only.

The 2nd line contains the soldiers first name in full and middle name initial, or just the Initials of both names.

  • The name is printed in the following order; First Name, Middle Initial.

 

The 3rd line contains the service number of the soldier and their blood group.

  • The USMC service number could be 5, 6 or 7 digits.

 

The 4th line contains USMC and the soldier's gas mask size.

  • There are five sizes of gas mask XS, S, M, L, XL.

 

The 5th line contains the soldier's religion preference.

  • Religion, on Vietnam era dog tags, was stamped out in full unlike WW2 era tags where the religion was abbreviated. So you had Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist etc, if you had no religious preference the tags are stamped NO PREFERENCE or are left blank.

 

USMC Service Number

During the early part of the Second World War, the Marine Corps extended their enlisted service numbers to the number 1,000,000 with numbers broken down into sub-sections reserved for particular groups enlisting during World War Two. The first group, ranging numbers 350,000 to 670,899, were standard Marine Corps enlistees joining for wartime service. Numbers 670,900 to 699,999 were never issued and 700,000 to 799,999 were reserved for female enlisted personnel. The female enlisted service numbers were also the only numbers assigned a prefix code, as the letter 'W' was used to denote female Marine Corps enlisted.

Until the middle of World War Twp, the remaining service number range of 800,000 to 999,999 was used by regular Marine enlistees. In 1943, the Marine Corps extended enlisted service numbers to 1,699,999 even though the original one million service number cap had not yet been reached.

Service numbers 1,700,000 to 1,799,999 were set aside for female enlisted personnel of the 1960s and 1970s while 1,800,000 to 2,000,000 was used by male enlistees. In 1965, with male service numbers running out due to a rise of enlistments during the Vietnam War, the Marine Corps extended enlisted service numbers a final time to 2,800,000. In 1972 the Social Security numbers was used as the primary identification means for service members.

 

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