Why don't all Americans wear dog tags? Wouldn't it have helped in the Gulf Coast?

Some in my generation of very early Boomers were issued dog tags. I still have the one I was issued in the 1950’s when we thought the A-bomb might reach us under our school desks after all.

They had our names, our father’s names, our addresses, our blood types, and our general religious preferences.

I wondered aloud why “they” wanted to know about our religion. A classmate explained that it had to do with which burial pile we would be in.

Cheerful fellow.

As I understand it, many people at the time were alarmed that the SSN and card would be used as a national ID, and were assured that wouldn’t happen. Which, of course, it did.

I think the Nazis tried this at Auschwitz. It didn’t go over too well.

I have one of these, the ankle version. I bought it right after the rotted corpse of a cyclist was found in a field at harvest. Near as the police could tell, it was female. Mine has my full name, and two contact names and phone numbers lazer engraved onto a metal plate. I don’t wear it every day, but always when travelling or adventuring. You can guarantee I would have it on if I evacuated from a disaster area. Once you have it on, you forget about it. They guarantee replacement if you are tougher than their product. Mine is 4 years old and counting. At $20, you don’t have much to lose. I don’t think they would ever be required for all the uproar already in this thread, but as a personal choice, its a no-brainer, especially if you are the travel and adventure type that doesn’t always have a purse and wallet with you. At some point, we all need to be responsible for ourselves and our loves ones, I wear it as much for my family as for myself.

I have a better idea: mandatory lifejacket to be worn at all times.

Hmm… Reflective orange doesn’t become me. Maybe it’s not a good idea.

[sub]BTW, I am not American.[/sub]

Me too. I do a lot of road and trail riding by myself. I thought it maight be a good idea if whoever found me had a clue as to who I was. :smiley:

If I was in the service or working for a private company in a high risk area, I’d beg to have a locator chip implanted so that if I’m kidnapped, they could locate me- and either rescue me or, if that’s impossible, at least bomb the crap out of the people that have me. :smiley:

This is exactly what I meant by my own post–some place where healthy people who choose to can submit a sample of their own DNA, in the event that it needs to be used for identification purposes later, if necessary. This would work in the scenario you described, but also in numerous other cases–like the WTC, or MIA soldiers. Even in the case of the Hurricane Katrina survivors, stored DNA could be used by adults to prove that they are who they say they are (to gain access to bank accounts, etc.), as well as to help match lost kids to their parents.

I do find it hard to see how a DNA identification database could be misused. If you are worried about it being used to identify criminals, how could that be a problem? DNA evidence now is used to clear people of crimes that they have been found guilty of in the past, and it would be a sure and simple way to prove that you were NOT the perpetrator of the crime–even more reliable than an alias of some sort for many crimes. If the person did commit the crime, though, and the DNA identification database could prove it, what’s the harm in that? It might even help reduce crime rates if potential criminals knew that their DNA could be matched to a crime. DNA could not be used as easily as the SSN to commit identity fraud, either. Even supposing that a “DNA Code” of some sort became a means of personal identification like the SSN, it would be MUCH harder to fake the data.

Nevertheless, I do believe that the submission of DNA to the database should be voluntary, rather than mandatory. If a person really feels the need to have their information destroyed upon reaching adulthood, that’s not that unreasonable, either.

I think that tattoos are one of the lesser things that “didn’t go over too well” at Auschwitz.

Count me in for the tinfoil crew.

When I was in Basic Training they took a sample of our DNA and are presumably storing it forever. So those of you who want your DNA stored, I recommend joining up. Oooh!–and they’ll give you dog tags, too.

Dear Sir,

Thank you for applying for health and life insurance with our company. Unfortunately, having referenced your DNA identification, cross related it with others in the national database, and compared health records, we have decided you are not a good risk.

Thank you for your interest.

Yours,
etc…

When I first read though your post the first thing I thought was “OMG, Mark of the Beast!” I was raised Bapist in the north. Try getting the Southern Bapists to accept one of those.