Dog Tags
 

Would 'dog tags' be a good travel requirement?

I don't mean to sound macabre, but I always wear my WWII dog tags when traveling -- name, serial number, blood type, religious preference.

Except if yours have the wrong blood type. YES, it happened to my guy- era in Army 1965-68.

And Thank God he never needed a transfusion, because if they would have used what it says on his tags he would have been dead quickly.

In older days (WWII and Korea especially) they did not have extremely accurate typing in mass situations. I know of TWO who have had this happen, and they both had type O and it read type A. So please make SURE you do not have this happen to you.

JJ5: good point. I know mine is accurate because, when I gave blood at the National Institutes of Health, my A positive was re-confirmed. I had always wondered if it was accurately stamped on my tags -- then I knew.

USNR, you should have seen the look on my guy's face when he realized the entire scenario!

I tested him myself with the lab kit at my school because I noticed that his doctor's records were different than his dog tags. And then the next time he went for a Cholesterol test, I asked him to ask for that information as well-because I couldn't believe it and thought I was the one who had to be wrong. I'm O myself and thought I had gotten the samples mixed or something.

NOPE- He is 0 Positive for SURE, and was walking around with A on his neck for years and one of them was in Korea- so I just want people to be careful.

I lost mine, but I carry my dad's from War II. We have the same name (I'm Jr.) and blood type.
My service # was my SSN, so just as well in this day of identity theft 'tho I might not pass for a '41 -'45 era USAAC Capt.
M