Dog Tag

These things are part of the New Trove
that Marty rescued from obscurity
under the attic eaves of the Marilla house.

The folder held the papers we have seen, in previous posts,
from Basic Training at Fort Benning, Georgia.
The belt wallet held insignia and medals.
The little waterproof duffel had maps of Chinese terrain,
and related items, which we will get to
when we finish with the Chicago photos.

We never saw these things.  We did see the photo-scrapbook,
but the rest we did not even know about.
Now it's all collated and chronological and we study.

There was a black metal footlocker up in the attic, always.
Maybe this is the key to it.

Having consulted pages 104-105 of Finding Your Father's War Revised Edition:: A Practical Guide to Researching and Understanding Service in the World War II US Army, I'm pretty confident that, for example, line 2 consists of the following:

First: "42021053," Army Serial Number;

Second: "T43," the date of the first tetanus inoculation, hence the year of induction;

Third: "44," the date of the latest tetanus booster;

Fourth: "B," the soldier's blood type.

Also, on line 5, way over on the right, is stamped a lonely-looking letter.  It is "C," for Catholic.

The notch in the metal on the left side was to hold the tag properly in the stamping equipment.

Julie