November 11, 2002

12:21 PM

US Soldiers' dogtagsare sold on the streets of Vietnam. An American backpacker bought as many as she could find and is now trying to find their owners. Interesting story.
posted by tomplus2 (6 comments total)

I got a chill while looking through the names. But would like to offer a suggestion instead of not giving them to the DoD or selling them. The Library of Congress has started a Veterans History Project that collects the stories from veterans and their families from all wars. Besides the stories, mementos and other artifacts are being collected. The LoC catalogs and maintain the items in their collection far better than anyone could imagine.
posted by mkelley at 1:11 PM on November 11, 2002

Not to be a spoil sport...but snopes has already debunked this.
posted by dipolemoment at 1:29 PM on November 11, 2002

To be precise, the part of the story Snopes debunked (or at least said was dubious) was that the dog tags were authentic. They were likely fakes manufactured in Vietnam for sale to tourists.
posted by shoos at 1:51 PM on November 11, 2002

BTW, I forgot to mention that I know a guy who was in Vietnam and was called by her this past weekend. So there. :)
posted by tomplus2 at 4:35 PM on November 11, 2002

But, tomplus, I don't think anyone's disputing the *original* tags were authentic - it's just, as any VN dust traveller will attest, that they've been stamped out by the ten-thousandfold for sale to gullible tourists.

In '94 I saw the same "authentic" 1st Aircav divisional Zippo lighter with sentimental inscription for sale in both Da Nang and Saigon.
posted by adamgreenfield at 6:00 PM on November 11, 2002

true, makes sense. That was actually my first thought when I heard the story of her finding them sold everywhere. But the call seemed to validate the effort a little more.
posted by tomplus2 at 10:05 PM on November 11, 2002