Patrice McEliece, widow of William S. McEliece, and Brandon Hayes, right, the grandson of McEliece, are presented with William's lost dog tag from Vietnam by Department of South Carolina Commander Bob Scherer. (Photo by Brett Flashnick)

The 'Long Lost Dog Tag' returns home

Dog tags have been a standard issue for most militaries dating back to the Roman Legions, when a Legionnaire was given a lead disc with a leather string which they wore around their neck from enlistment through retirement. The dog tags are not an inherently valuable commodity, save to those who wore them, and to the families of those men and women who did.

Recently, The American Legion returned a dog tag to the family of William S. McEliece, a soldier who served in Vietnam, and lost his dog tag there, thousands of miles from home.

In the late 1970s, Sau Liu emigrated to the United States from Vietnam and returned to visit about 10 years ago. While there he was given a dog tag from his friend Siu Hoang who had found it near Cam Ranh, one of the first cities to fall in South Vietnam after the United States withdrew. Hoang said he’d hoped that Liu could help locate the man to whom it belonged, if he was still alive. Unsure what to do with it, Liu brought it home, and put it to the side.

For years Liu, 57, hung on to the dog tag, which bore the name of McEliece, unsure where to even begin looking for its long-lost owner. Finally, earlier this year -- 37 years after it was lost in Vietnam -- the dog tag was passed along to Legionnaire David Katzka, the finance officer for Harley-Davidson Post 400 in Milwaukee, Wis.

“When I was contacted about it, I immediately started looking for next of kin,” said David Kurtz, department adjutant for Wisconsin, noting that he enjoys history and genealogy. “I was able to find family members in South Carolina and Georgia. From there I contacted the Department of Georgia and South Carolina adjutants and they researched on their end. Eventually we got in contact with the local posts.”

McEliece, who was in the Air Force before transferring to the Army, served in both Korea and Vietnam. He would return from southeast Asia and continued to serve in the military, eventually retiring as a first sergeant after 23 years of service before becoming a heavy equipment operator with a utilities company. He had also been a member of Post 178 in Augusta, Ga. McEliece had passed away in February 2005, but Kurtz and the other adjutants were able to locate McEliece’s widow, Patricia McEliece, and his grandson, Brandon Hayes, who both lived in North Augusta, S.C.

At an event last week at Jesse C. Lynch Memorial American Legion Post 71 in North Augusta, S.C., Post Commander Ralph Wainwright returned what he called the “long lost dog tag” to McEliece’s widow and grandson. The dog tag itself was in a protective shadowbox, with an POW/MIA challenge coin provided by Post 400 in Milwaukee. South Carolina Department Commander Bob Scherer presented the memento at a post meeting.

Holding the display after the ceremony, Brandon and his wife, Briana, discussed where to place the artifact. “We’ll put it up in the house beside the picture we have of him that was placed out at our wedding,” Briana said as Brandon continued to admire the display.

For Wainwright, the event was important as well as fulfilling, and showed the active involvement that the Legion has within the community.

“To me the event was very important because here we had a veteran who went overseas in Vietnam, and he came back got married and went on with his life, and this is his legacy he’s living on, and being able to give it to his grandson was great,” said Wainwright. “It was a very impressive ceremony with history and interesting how many people were involved. A part of his legacy is living on because the dog tag is back with the family.”