For more than two decades Vietnam veterans have loudly dismissed the
bogus claims made by Vietnamese merchants of U.S. military dogtags
found by peasants in rural areas that were former US/VC/NVA combat or
firefight zones.

the Marxist Communists meticulously utilized every scrap of discarded U.S. materiel to construct bombs, booby traps and other paraphernalia used for killing, wounding or propaganda purposes.  Along with the tonnage of weapons and equipment we left behind were 23
(known) dogtag imprinters. Of course, these machines need not be duplicated, even though their reproduction is simple, because they can
be easily purchased from any country whose military also uses dogtags for personnel post-mortem identification. Today, the "commercial"
communists of Vietnam appear to have finally gained the support of the Associated Press in exploding their bogus dogtag market.

Bogus American dogtags have been for sale in Vietnam since the end of the war. They are reproduced as raw stamps then artfully "aged" by
scraping or rusting. twenty-five year old dung and dirt collected from known U.S. pilot
ejection/landing (or other US battle) sites is pushed under the dogtags' rolled edges to "authenticate" their age.

Apparently, and according to the Vietnamese dogtag merchants, US
military personnel were issued two sets of dogtags... one to wear
around our necks; the other to be casually left by us in the bush for
a Vietnamese farmer to someday find decades later... or perhaps we
stupidly failed to discover they were stolen by a prostitute who would
later use them to confirm we sired her Amer-Asian child. (Duh... Thank
God for DNA testing progress, huh, fellas?)

Although Vietnam veterans who have returned to
Vietnam over the past twenty years have vociferously dismissed the
hundreds of dogtag findings as bogus, two publicity seeking
individuals cruising the peddler stalls of Vietnam street merchants
appear to have convinced the local Associated Press staff in Ho Chi
Minh City (Saigon) to report their so-called "discovery" as genuine.
We can now expect no fewer than a fifty-eight thousand new "dogtag
findings" to suddenly occur in Vietnam. Will the Vietnamese scoundrels
never cease their endeavors to make an American buck?

No way, Jose! Nothing has changed since the war began for America in
1954 or ended in 1975. As P.T. Barnum once said, "A sucker is born
every minute." Sadly, for the families of our Vietnam killed in action
and MIAs desperately seeking any 'connect' with a lost loved one,
representatives of the American press have now validated the
Vietnamese sucker "dogtag" industry. Now that the dogtag scam has been
implanted on headlines in small town newspapers and featured as 'Top
Stories' by cable news stations (who will buy anything), we can soon
expect to hear reports of newly found unmailed "letters" written by
our dead and missing... or decayed parts of boots or clothing still
bearing their scribbled felt-markered names... to hit the Associated
Press newsstand.

My recommedation: No matter which State in our Wondrous Union you come
from, consider yourself to be a resident of Harry S. Truman's home
State... if someone reports they are in possession of your dogtags, or
those of a buddy who died there, say to them: "I'm from Missouri.
You're gonna have to Show Me some proof!"

Phill Coleman,
1st Signal Brigade, Vietnam, 1969-70
http://members.aol.com/philliprcoleman/pcole.htm


---------------------------
  Brooke Rowe
  Associate Librarian
  The American War Library
  http://www.americanwarlibrary.com