USAF Dog Tag

TheFenTiger · Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:40 pm

I went out today on easy to dig stubble on a near perfect digging day, not too hot or cold, nice easy digging, just a little damp underfoot. Not much came up but on an area which had some domestic sites from the USAF airfield came this dog tag. A nice personal find which leads you down the research route. A quick check on the aircrew list showed he wasn't aircrew but good old Ancestry brought up a picture of his enrolment record and a further search shows he died in 1987 in Tennessee. Now to see if I can find any living relatives.

Blackadder43 · Sun Aug 30, 2020 10:49 pm

Oh wow, i love things like this
Please keep us informed with the research

Its amazing what records are to be found online these days.....

Mon Aug 31, 2020 5:19 am

Good of you to seek out any relatives and as BA says, please let us know if you're successful

wittsy1 · Mon Aug 31, 2020 8:55 am

Excellent. Good look with the research.

TheFenTiger · Mon Aug 31, 2020 9:22 am

Drawing a bit of a blank but have found out he was married. He only appears on 1 public ancestry tree so I have contacted that person to see if they have any further information.

Mucky · Mon Aug 31, 2020 10:36 am

Thats a great find.. Hope you find a relative, as said keep us posted.

samuraitrev · Mon Aug 31, 2020 12:15 pm

A great, interesting find. I'm sure any ancestors would absolutely love this. I really hope you can get it to them.

I-Rutus · Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:46 pm

To find one of these would be the very pinnacle of my detecting bucket list.
I hope it finds it's way home, try contacting the local radio station in the town where he lived in the USA

Sensorman · Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:16 am

What a great find. Hopefully you will be able to find out more and maybe even repatriate it.

Mucky · Tue Sep 01, 2020 8:32 pm

I-Rutus wrote: ↑Mon Aug 31, 2020 7:46 pm To find one of these would be the very pinnacle of my detecting bucket list.
I hope it finds it's way home, try contacting the local radio station in the town where he lived in the USA

That's a brilliant suggestion! Ditto that.

TheFenTiger · Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:15 pm

I may have a relation of his sister, getting a bit confused as they say she only had 1 brother but a family tree shows 2 but she comes from the same town with the same surname so have to pursue it. I also know his wife was a teacher as I have a photograph of her in a year book so the last town they lived in would be the way I would go regarding newspapers / radio.

Mucky · Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:24 pm

TheFenTiger wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:15 pm I may have a relation of his sister, getting a bit confused as they say she only had 1 brother but a family tree shows 2 but she comes from the same town with the same surname so have to pursue it. I also know his wife was a teacher as I have a photograph of her in a year book so the last town they lived in would be the way I would go regarding newspapers / radio.

Sounds like you are doing well on the research.. tread carefully and don't decide either way without proof that you have the right family.
Good luck.

I-Rutus · Wed Sep 02, 2020 4:48 pm

Try to find out if the town has a veterans association, they would know how to help

Saffron · Fri Sep 04, 2020 9:50 pm

Mucky wrote: ↑Tue Sep 01, 2020 10:24 pm Sounds like you are doing well on the research.. tread carefully and don't decide either way without proof that you have the right family.
Good luck.

Mucky is correct about being careful you have the correct family.

I have done masses of family history for very many years.

Over the years I have learnt how easy it can be to make errors if you do not double check every thing. One thing I never trust is Ancestry family trees!!. They are a good starting point, but always need to be checked as I have seen lots of errors on them.

Evan

Fri Sep 04, 2020 10:51 pm

Brilliant news you are getting somewhere with the research