The Story
I was catching up on my blog reading while waiting for my hair appointment. I had come across the post Help Find a WW2 Soldier from Illinois over at Olive Tree Genealogy, and just barely started reading it when they called me back for my haircut. When I got home, I headed to the computer to finish reading the blog post.
The long and short of the story is someone in Australia found WWII dog tags and was hoping to find living relatives to pass them on to. Olive Tree Genealogy author Lorine, posted the information found on the tags, along with a photo. Several people jumped on board to help find a relative, posted their finds in the comments of the blog post. Someone located and contacted the man’s wife, and it looks like she will be reunited with her late husband’s WWII dog tags. Be sure to read her post and the comments.
My Discovery
While reading through the comments, someone posted information on what the information on the dog tags meant, specifically, the serial number. The comment referred to a website that I checked out to see if I could learn more about my grandfather’s WWII history through his dog tags.
I discovered that he was in fact drafted, based on the first number of his serial number (3). I had suspected this, loosely based on the fact that I could not located enlistment card, and a relative (who’s now in his late 70s) was “pretty sure” he was drafted. I could not located a draft card because he was too young to be in the fourth batch of draft cards currently available to the public.
The second number refers to the Corps Area or Service Command. A number of 6 indicates the Sixth Corps Area, which is part of the Second Army Area. The Sixth Corps Area contains Illinois, Wisconsin, and Michigan.
I also came across this website, which explains what the other information is, as well as the reason for the notch on the left side of the tags. According to my grandfather’s tags, he had a tetanus shot in 1943, had a blood type of O, and I’m assuming the “C” stands for Catholic.
It’s amazing how much information a few lines of text can provide!
Isn’t this amazing information!? Thanks for posting. I never thought about those numbers and what they might mean. This is great, something new for me to play with now!
That’s great! I only wish I had my grandpa’s dog tags so I could do the same thing.
Very interesting information. Thanks for sharing!