German Erkennungsmarke (dog tag), issued January 1989. The new ones have the country code of DEU instead of GE.
When I checked the calendar for something unrelated earlier this week, I realized that I turned in my gear and became a civilian again exactly 30 years ago this month, after serving 4 years and 2 months in the German Army. I was only 21 when I got out because I was barely 17 when I enlisted almost straight out of high school.
The Erkennungsmarke isn’t something you usually get to keep. At the end of active service, it gets turned in with most of the other issued gear, to be put into the personnel file for reissue if there’s a reservist call-up or general mobilization. I have this one because I reported mine lost and they struck a replacement, only for me to find the original later, so I kept the duplicate.
I picked a wild time to serve in the military. When I joined up, the Cold War was still going on, although nobody in January of 1989 anticipated that eleven months later, the Berlin Wall would come down, and that all the communist satellite states of the Soviet Union would fall like dominoes within a few months, choosing democracy, Levi’s jeans and McDonald’s over socialism, Bulgarian shoes, and khlav kalash. By the time I got out, the Cold War was won, the Soviet Union didn’t exist anymore, the Baltic countries were independent, and Germany was reunited.
It doesn’t really feel like it was three decades ago. But I guess it’s correct because I got an email from my high school class reunion committee a few weeks ago, inviting me to our 35th anniversary high school reunion. Unfortunately, the math seems to check out…
And what about blood type? 🙂
It’s on my dog tag (Hungarian “Army”)
(and I’m a few months older 🙂 )
It’s on the reverse.
I just attended my 50th high school reunion. We were a lucky class because only 15 or so of us, out of a class of 300, had passed beyond the pale. I was well into my second decade in the US Army when you joined your military. I thought maybe we can have peace, when the Wall fell. I was quickly disabused of that notion when less than a month later we invaded Panama, then Desert Storm less than a year after that. It never fails. Somebody is always beating on somebody else.
Great that you got to keep the duplicate, part of your legacy! The time you served was an interesting time and you witnessed significant historical events.
Maybe that’s why I enjoy your (and Ringo’s) stuff so much…we all enlisted around the same time.