U.S. Military Dog Tags Are Every Veteran's "Metals Of Honor"

I got a kick out of Jeff Parker's above cartoon. 

I received my dog tags at the United States Naval Training Center in Great Lakes, Illinois - otherwise known as "Boot Camp" - in February of 1970. I was 17. 

I wore my dog tags around my neck while serving on the aircraft carrier USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War and later while serving on the Navy harbor tugboat USS Saugus at the U.S. nuclear submarine base at Holy Loch, Scotland.  

After all these years, I still wear one of my dog tags proudly on a gold chain around my neck. The other dog tag is on my key chain. 

And hanging from my desk lamp in my basement office and library is my late father's dog tags from when he was a U.S. Navy chief petty officer and UDT frogman in WWII.