Source: WISH-TV
ANDERSON, Ind.–The dog tags belonging to a World War II veteran from Anderson were returned to his family on Monday.
Dog tags are an informal but common terms for identification tags worn by military personnel. The tags’ primary use is for the identification of casualties. They usually have information about the person written on them, including identification and essential basic medical information such as blood type.
On Monday, the family of Staff Sergeant Jackson McGill held a ceremony on a day that would have been his 100th birthday. Karen McGill Young is McGill’s oldest child and only daughter. She accepted the dog tags from the French Department of the American Legion in the ceremony.
“I really appreciated the efforts that they went through to get them to us. I don’t want to lose them again,” said Young.
It was part of that effort that two years ago, Valerie Prehoda and a team were in the area of Monchy-Cayeux, France, to search a field for a World War II pilot’s remains. Prehoda is a retired Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marines Corp. The dog tags were found by a man named Monsieur Luce. He kept them safe in his wallet.
“He had been holding on to them for over 30 years. He was hoping that he could find an American to return those dog tags to and get them back to the family,” said Prehoda.
During his time in World War II, McGill survived multiple plane crashes before he died.
“He never spoke about the crash, any of the crashes,” said Young.
The family decided that McGill’s middle grandson, Matthew, is in charge of the tags now. Matthew has spent a lot of time researching and learning about McGill’s time serving during World War II.
“I think he was protecting us from what he dealt with in WWII. So, everything we know is from letters (sent to) his brother. And we didn’t know he was hurt. This was informative to us. It’s kept his memory alive for sure. I think it’ll bring our family closer. This whole experience shows you that there’s goodness in the world, ya know?,” said Matthew.
