The future of dog tags

Dog tags of the future will hardly resemble those of today. New technology is already being used by the armed forces to track an injured soldiers medical information. Software called BMIST (Battlefield Medical Information System-Tactical) can be used to track the soldiers medical care in a combat zone and then be accessed by hospital staff while the soldier is enroute. Wireless data devices similar to dog tags are being tested as a means to store gigabytes worth of data. Certainly much more than the name, SSN, blood type and religion information used for current dog tags. Who knows if the stainless steel tags will ever be completely replaced though. They have proven rugged, dependable and there are no sensitive electronic components to fail.

Medical ID dog tags

The military issues red aluminum dog tags to those with certain medical conditions. These are in addition to the stainless steel tags issued to every soldier. The aluminum tags are slightly larger than the standard issue dog tags and require a slight adjustment on our machines to emboss them. Unfortunately we no longer sell them. The demand for them was not enough to justify the time necessary to adjust our embossers.