I was recently going through some boxes of “Stuff” with my mom, and she produced my dog tags, and my dads. Mine, (80-86, US Army Reserves), have four data fields, name, serial number, blood type and religion. His, (53-55, US Army) had those four, plus one that reads “T-53”. Anyone know what that is? I am guessing indicates 53 is the year he was drafted. What does the T mean?
Perhaps the year of his tetanus immunization?
Update, mom just found his DD-214, he was not drafted in 53, he was drafted and entered service in 51. He left active duty in 53. This was confirmed (sort of) by a picture of him in uniform, dated 53 in pencil on the back, showing Corporal stripes, he did tell me he left service as a Corporal, I remember it well because I left as a Sgt., about the only time I ever upstaged the old man. His DD-214 shows he did two years active. Then there are a lot of strike overs on the old type, and this was a copy of a copy of a carbon etc, but it said he had finished his eight year commitment, (surprised me, I only had a six year commitment) but the date was unreadable. He married mom in 55 and she swears he never went to drill after he got off active duty. Maybe back then the inactive reserve was a big thing.
Regarding the commitment: when one is either drafted or volunteers into the US Armed Forces, one incurs a Military Service Obligation (MSO). When I enlisted, the MSO was for six years. Sometime in the 1980s, the MSO for initial entries was changed to eight years. If one serves their active duty obligation but has not served the MSO, they’re not discharged. They’re transferred to the Reserves. This usually isn’t a drilling Reserve unit, unless they volunteer for that. At the end of the MSO, they’re discharged.
Thanks for the input Monty. I joined in 80, there was no draft. My commitment was six years, all active reserve. I was surprised to learn my dad’s (who was drafted) was eight. My son joined in 2004 and his commitment was six, all active. One of his friends joined, and it was still six, but two active, four reserves. It depends on MOS I am told. Unfortunately my son was was injured in training and was discharged for medical reasons. He has healed and is reenlisting soon. They are offering him six reserves this time, he has changed MOS.
seenidog: Are you sure that you and your son were only obligated for a total of 6 years? According to this cite (specifically section 4.2) all military personnel are obligated to a total of 8 years of service.
I am curious because I enlisted fairly recently and would like to know if I unnecessarily committed myself for 8 years when I could have gotten away with 6.
His MSO would have been eight years unless there was a change in the legislation recently.
To .Tyr., geeze I hope so. I am quite sure about my own enlistment, although I have no proof. After the death of my father, we had to get a DD-214 for him to have a flag on his casket. We got that quite easily, it took like two days after calling the record center in St. Louis. In the state of upheaval ( I will not call it grief, we all knew it was coming), but there are ten thousand details no one imagined. I never looked at the papers, I copied them and sent then to the funeral director who said “good enough”. By the way the flag comes from of all places, the US Postal office. Go figure.
Anyway, two years after I got out of the reserves I was served with papers, a “Report of Survey”. It said I owed 70 bucks or so for equipment I had failed to turn in upon my discharge, this being triggered by a unit inventory due to change of command. I called a buddy of mine who was a Captain in the Army, he referred me to an Army lawyer who said just pay it and be done with it. That was in 88 so I am certain I was out. When the kid joined, they said, six years straight up active. I have since contacted ST Louis for my own DD-214, and got a record showing me being discharged from training to the active reserve, but no record of me existing after that. Wierd. But the original question was, what does T-53 mean? By the way, I had the copy of my original DD-214 given to me when I did seperate, butit was destroyed in a house fire.It does exist somewhere.
to Monty, You may be right, the endless details of it were awesome, and I have to say the military is abiding by “don’t ask don’t tell”, if you do not ask a recruiter, he won’t tell. My son would not have known to ask, and I probably didn’t either, assumming was still six years, thanks for bringing it up, it WILL be asked on tuesday when he goes back to MEPPS.
As I posted earlier, it looks like the year in which he received his tetanus shot. This information was removed from the tags in the early 1960s. So T-53 means that he completed his tetanus vaccination series in 1953, and would not need to be revaccinated against tetanus until 1963.
Cresend
My apologies, I posted incorrect dates in the op. In light of his enlistment being from 51 to 53 instead of 53 to 55, the dates don’t add up. I am going to guess he was immunized in 51, if it is good for ten years why do it again in 53? Sorry, don’t mean to argue with you, but I have a low confidence level that is it. But then again I have a long history of being wrong. Like when a few hours ago I said he was drafted in 53 and found out with convincing proof I was off by two years, and have documents saying 51.
::: waves arms:::
I know, I know!
Funny just before reading this thread, I was reading about dog tags.
On www.dogtagsrus.com I saw the answer.
T53 is the date of the tetanus shot, just like Crescend said.
I tried to go to the link to see, but down for maintainance. Mere coincidence? Well, this time on a Monday AM probably yes. But for sure I will check back later and am in the mean time going to get some sleep, will need all my energy to apologize to Cresend for doubting…Thank you all for your info…
Look at both the Application for Enlistment and the Enlistment Contract. They both give you information about it.
BTW, one’s not discharged into the Reserves from Active Duty. One is “Released From Active Duty and Tranferred to a Reserve Component.”
About dog tags:
http://home.att.net/~steinert/us_army_ww2_dog_tags.htm
The second link has examples of tags with tetanus toxoid. The link is for WWII tags but I wouldn’t be at all surprised if the OP’s dad got the TT during inprocessing.
Or, as Crescend pointed out, afterwards.
Thanks for all the info from all. And to Crescend, my apologies for questioning your answer. You were right. Thanks for your help, nooffence meant, hope none taken.
No worries.