Retired vet launches dog tag-making business - Air Force News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Air Force Times

Retired vet launches dog tag-making business

DAVENPORT, Iowa — Having been an Air Force fighter pilot during the Vietnam War, Brad Nelson thinks things have changed for the better as far as folks in the armed forces are concerned.

“Things are different from when I was in the service,” the 63-year-old Davenport man says. “When I came home on leave, we didn’t think about wearing our uniform in public. But now it’s the way it should be. Soldiers in the military are highly regarded.”

And whether they are current or former, an important possession for all service personnel is their dog tags, as the small military identification tags — made of aluminum and worn around the neck — generally are known. They include the wearer’s name, service or Social Security number, branch of service, blood type and religious preference, information that can be vital, especially in a combat situation.

Service members typically form a strong attachment to those little metal tags. Nelson, who served in the Air Force for 11 years, still has his decades later. And thanks to him, plenty of other people have them, too, whether they’re in the military, used to be or never were.

By purchasing some military surplus equipment and converting it for his own purposes, Nelson has created two mobile dog tag-making units that he refers to as The Dog House. He drives it to military shows around the country, where he makes and sells dog tags for a small fee.

“I really enjoy talking to people and providing them with a $5 dog tag that they leave smiling with,” he said.

The dog tags he makes get used on luggage, as key rings and simply as gifts. Some people want to duplicate the dog tags of a friend or family member who serves in the military.

The most memorable set he has created were for a man who was a prisoner of war during the Korean War.

“When he was held prisoner, they took his dog tags. He was thrilled to be able to get his dog tags back,” Nelson said.

Nelson, who was an F4 Phantom jet pilot during his Air Force career, said, “I loved to fly. It was gratifying to get to the point where you didn’t have to think about what you were doing. You just did it. It became second nature to fly that big plane.”

Long since retired from the Air Force, Nelson still has a great appreciation for military equipment and found what he needed for his mobile dog tag-making business/hobby through the U.S. government surplus site GovLiquidation.com.

Nelson purchased a “deuce-and-a-half,” or 2 1/2-ton truck, a modified military maintenance box and a communications trailer and made modifications to suit his needs. He acquired a pair of vintage Graphotype machines made by the Addressograph Multigraph Corp. that look sort of like a typewriter and are used to stamp out the dog tags.

Melissa Gieringer, who works in public relations for Government Liquidation, said it sells military equipment that is too old for combat but too good to throw away. And having come straight from combat, she said, Nelson’s truck and trailer were ready to handle long trips and days.

Long trips are something Nelson knows all about. In June 2009, he took part in a cross-country convoy organized by the national Military Vehicle Preservation Association that went from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco and commemorated a 1919 trip designed to test the newly mechanized U.S. Army and America’s roads.

Traveling 35 mph and making dog tags in towns along the way, Nelson called it a landmark event in his life.

“It was essentially a 3,000-mile parade, and the response from the towns was absolutely overwhelming,” he said.

He and his wife, Nancy, plan to participate in another convoy this summer to mark the 70th anniversary of the opening of the Alcan Highway, from Dawson Creek, British Columbia, Canada, to Fairbanks, Alaska, making more dog tags and meeting new people along the way.

“People are good. It’s a Midwestern mentality, but if you can keep busy and do what interests you and do it in an honorable way, that’s important,” he says.