Veteran Flag

The Army ordered identification tags for its soldiers on December 20, 1906: an aluminum disc about the size of a silver half dollar, stamped with name, rank and unit, worn on a cord beneath the shirt. Before that, men had improvised. Civil War soldiers pinned paper notes with their name and address to their coats, scratched names into belt buckles, or bought engraved badges from advertisers.

A second tag came in July 1916, so that one could stay with the body and the other go to the people keeping records. Service numbers were stamped on them from 1918. It is a small, plain object, meant for the worst day, and many veterans keep theirs for the rest of their lives.

In this picture the tags stand where the stars would be. A square field of dark cloth holds rows of plain metal tags, and more hang in pairs down the creased tan-and-brick stripes of a flag. The whole thing sits inside a border of brass rifle cartridges laid end to end. Everything is muted, bronze and khaki and rust, except the metal, which catches the light.