On days like today when the headlines are full of doom, doom and more doom, it’s nice to read a story about people who still give a damn about being good.

A Vietnam veteran who lost his military dog tag when he was injured by an exploding grenade in 1971 recently got a surprise – his dog tag had been found.

A German woman who bought Phil Tatom’s dog tag, which contains a soldier’s name and other information, from a vendor during a visit to Vietnam in 2000 tracked him down a few weeks ago and mailed them to his home.

“If this dog tag could only talk, I’d have some incredible stories to tell. But just having it again means so much to me,” Tatom said.

“Now I’ve got something besides the shrapnel in my backside. I’ve got something I can hold in my hand. I guess you could say this provides closure in a very special way.”

Monday, July 21st, 2003, 12:00 pm   |   Odd Bites  |  RSS feed Comments and pings are currently closed.