Dog Tags: Meaningful Metal on Memorial Day

[wackychick]

ARLINGTON, Va. (Army News Service, May 19, 2008) - In Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, where casualties from Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest, a mother recently clutched her son's dog tags.

The chain drooped over the mother's clinched fist as rifles were fired and Taps played. Those pieces of metal gave her comfort, she said. The tags had once hung beneath her son's shirt, and over his heart, and the mother said when she holds them now, she feels close to him.

Much like that mother, Karen Meredith wrote about her son, Ken Ballard, killed in Najaf, Iraq, May 30, 2004: "When my son's body was returned to me, they gave me what was on his body when he was killed; his belt-buckle, his spurs (Cavalry), and his dog tags. I immediately put them on and have not removed them for anything; not for airport security, not for a mammogram. They stay close to my heart where my son will always be."

Read more about dog tags and their significance

[luv_2_laugh]

I think dog tags are meaningful in general not just on Memorial Day! I talk to alot of people who have lost/misplaced there dog tags and want to know how to go about getting them replaced. They carry very sentimental value to those who have served our country as well as family members who have lost someone in the Military.