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USN Vietnam Dog Tag Layout

How USN Vietnam Dog Tags were stamped

The United States Navy had the following information stamped on to them and they used the same dog tags as the Army and USMC.

Line Details:	Line Example:
Last Name	DOE
First Name Initial, Middle Initial and Blood Group	J.J. B POS
Service Number with pre-fix or Social Security Number	B12 34 56 or 123-45-6789
USN	USN
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 and middle name initials and their blood group.

The name is printed in the following order; First Name Initial, Middle Name Initial, Blood group

The 3rd line contains the service number with pre-fix or the social security number of the soldier.

See below for the service number explanation.

The 4th line contains USN.

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.

USN Service Number

Officer.

An officer's service number ranged from 0 - 999,999 and was issued based on date of commission. This ran from the 1920's until 1972 when the Navy moved to use social security numbers.

Enlisted.

Navy Enlisted service numbers ran from 1,000,000 - 9,999,999 and until the 1930's the 1st digit was issued based on enrollment decade. example from the 1920's: 212 34 56.

It was realised that that if large numbers were to enlist the numbers would run out so before the outbreak of WW2 it was changed so that the 1st digit was based on an enrollment district then a 6 digit personal identifier. Example: 312 34 56.

From 1965 to 1971 soldier's were issued with a 'B' series service number. The number began with the letter B and 6 digits as a personal identifier. in 1969 a 'D' series was also added. In 1972 the Navy had moved to using social security numbers. Example B12 34 56.

Women.

The Navy used the suffix W which was issued from 1948 until the late 1960s to female enlisted personnel. The "W" suffix was written behind the service number of any officer or enlisted Navy member who was a woman. This practice was discontinued in early 1970, shortly before the discontinuance of service numbers as a whole.