A selection of American identity discs to illustrate just some of the various types that can be encountered.
The round one at the top is a WW1 era disc and was an improvement on the fibre based discs, this example belonged to an American Armoured trooper.
The rectangular discs were first instituted in 1940 and were made of monel (the two yellowy coloured discs are examples of this metal). You will also note the soldiers full name, Army serial number, next of kin and address and religion appear on them.
The third type shown is the stainless steel type as used from 1942-43. In July 1943 the next of kin name and address were omitted. After March 1944 the owners surname was stamped first, then the Christian name followed by the ASN and the tetanus inoculation dates.
You will see in the third row above left that there is no tetanus inoculation dates specified. The owner of this tag was a negro soldier and we have shown similar tags before. We assume that this omission is due to his not being a front line soldier, rather than any deliberate racial reason.
The last tag shown is not often seen. It is simply stamped "Unknown soldier, X598, GRS". Although members of the armed forces of all sides were always told of the importance of wearing their identity discs at all times the deadly game of modern warfare is no follower of rules or regulations. Sometimes the manner of a serviceman's death could result in his identity being lost. So in this case the Graves Registration Service would have to record his identity as not known.
This was the case of "X598". He was literally the 598th unknown American combatant to be recovered by the Graves Registration Service after the Battle of the Bulge. They had listed the location his remains were found, along with any items that might later identify him and placed a tag like this one with his remains. A second tag was fixed to a grave marker (a cross).
In 1949 all the graves would have their wooden crosses and tags replaced with a marble cross. If the identity was still not resolved then the grave was still listed as unidentified "Known only unto God". This tag above was recovered several years ago. It clearly shows where it was nailed to the wooden grave marker.
You can now read the story behind "X598" here.