Editorials

Vietnam War dog tags make it back to U.S.

The Associated Press The Associated Press The Associated Press
Thursday July 05, 2001

American business men buy IDs in back-alley market 

 

ORLANDO, Fla. — The mother of a Marine killed in Vietnam received his dog tags in an Independence Day ceremony after two Florida businessmen found them for sale in a back-alley market in Ho Chi Minh City. 

Rob Stiff and Jim Gain were so sickened at the discovery of Lance Cpl. Allan George Decker’s tags that they returned to Vietnam in May to buy them and hundreds of others.  

Upon returning to America, they began trying to reunite soldiers and their families with the lost tags. 

On Wednesday, the men gave Decker’s mother the tags at the Orlando cemetery where he was buried after his death in 1968. 

“I just hope that other families can find the kind of peace that I have felt today,” Ruth Decker said. “The Lord had his hand in this from the beginning.” 

Since the end of the war, Vietnamese field workers have found all sorts of military debris: boots, helmets, badges, buttons, medals and dog tags. 

Servicemen usually wore the tags – silver discs that listed a soldier’s name, military identification number and blood type – around their necks, but in the field many put them in their boots so they wouldn’t jingle. 

Stiff and Gain weren’t looking for war mementos when they traveled to Vietnam in January. They wanted to check the commercial climate for possible business ventures. But in a market not frequented by tourists, they found the dog tags dangling from a string. 

“It was really eerie and we were disgusted,” said Stiff, 27. 

Despite their revulsion, they left the tags there. But back home in America, they couldn’t escape the memory. 

“People asked, ‘What if they’re fake?”’ Stiff said.  

“Well, our question was, ’What if they’re real?”’ 

In May, they returned to Vietnam to buy all the American dog tags they could find. It took days to scour Ho Chi Minh City and sort through thousands of tags – some printed in Vietnamese, others destroyed or illegible – and returned home with about 640. 

The total cost of the tags was $180. They sometimes paid less than 14 cents each. 

Stiff and Gain transcribed what was printed on each the best they could, then complied a database of names and ID numbers to list on their Web site: www.founddogtags.com. 

A dozen tags matched names listed on the black granite Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. 

“One day, Jim comes into my office and says, ’You won’t believe this. We’ve got matches for the Wall,”’ Stiff said. 

One of the first names they uncovered was Decker’s. With the help of Rep. Ric Keller, an Orlando Republican, and the Defense Department they tracked Ruth Decker to her home in Punta Gorda and called her June 21. 

“She was so full of joy,” Stiff said. 

Decker began his Vietnam tour as a machine-gunner with the 2nd Battalion, 27th Regiment of the 3rd Marine Division on Feb. 16, 1968. 

On Aug. 25, 1968, the 19-year-old Marine was killed in Quang Nam province, one of more than 58,000 Americans to die in Vietnam. He had lost his dog tags during his six months in Vietnam. 

“Allan was killed on a Sunday, and we didn’t receive the word until the following Thursday,” said Ruth Decker. “My husband and I were just crushed.” 

“But the next day, we received a letter from his buddy,” she said. “He said that Allan believed in God very strongly, and He will take care of him. And that was my consolation right from the beginning.”