Tags
THe official word:
Two tags both made of stainless steel stamped with the same info. Both Air Force and Army [US] use the same format:
Last Name
First Name Middle Initial
Social Security #
Blood Type
Religeon
For example
SMITH
JOHN Q
123-45-6789
O POS
CATHOLIC
All in caps.
Two tags are worn so one can go with the body and one with the 'graves registration' packet. *or* with the two bigest body parts, if that's the situation, until the parts can be placed in a body bag.
Tags in the field are usually worn with black silences around the edges to cut down on the sound. There are vinal sleeves for the two chains as well. Some folks [my husband was one of the] will coat their tags with black paint or permanent marker so they don't 'flash' in sunlight.
You only see one tag on a chain on SG-1 becasue they don't have it right and they haven't corrected the error. MSgt. Tom [the USAF rep] and I chuckled about this at GateCon this year as they have been told.
Civillians who's job status places them in a 'Hazzardous Duty Environment' are required to wear 'military identification tags' the same as active duty and for the same reason: to help with the identification of remains and for POW identification. There aren't a lot of civs on this status so it's not something you hear alot about.
A person with a medical condition will also wear a red anodised dog tag with said medical contidion stamped on it so medical personal can rapidly ident any problems. It's usually worn on the short chain.
It's not uncommon for USAF folks on flight status or anyone on 'jump status' [again, my hsband] to get an extra set of tags and lace one into each set of boot laces as the boots [and feet] usually survive a plane crash. I could see SG teams doing this also as I would imagine a staff blast to the chest might trash the dog tags around the neck.
As for me, when I was on active duty, I had a medical tag and wore spares in my7 boots, even though I didn't jump. I did do some air evac for the Army and was in Desert Storm and wanted the extra ID. AS a civ, I wear my dog tags when I fly and wear my old combat boots with thier tags [they're comfy].
Just in case.
Rowan
aka: Jari L. James, MSG-1SG/E-8
US Army [ret]