A soldier’s story in his dog tag
Cultural historian Genevieve Cabrera found a soldier’s dog tag in a field where more than 70 years ago, American soldiers fought against the the 43rd Division of the Imperial Japanese Army on the island of Saipan. One of the American infantry divisions doing battle there was the New York National guard’s 27th Division. One of the soldiers in that division was Private First Class Thomas E. Davis. Somehow or another, he lost his dog tag in that farmer’s field where it laid until Ms. Cabrera found it sticking up out of the freshly tilled soil. 13,000 Americans were killed or injured in the 3 weeks and 3 days of that battle. 24,000 Japanese were killed, another 5,000 committed suicide and about a thousand civilians committed suicide plunging to their deaths on “Suicide Cliff” and “Banzai Cliff” because the emperor of Japan offered them special dispensation for a hero’s welcome into the afterlife in exchange for their deaths. PFC Davis wasn’t one of those casualties on Saipan, though. He earned a Silver Star, according to his family, for saving a fellow soldier’s life.
Davis died about ten months later on Okinawa, along with the other 12,000 Americans who were KIA, but his dog tag remained on Saipan until now when it’s being returned to Davis’ family, according to the Associated Press, the dog tag will go to PFC Davis’ namesake nephew in Victoria, Indiana Texas.
Category: War Stories
Well this is a really interesting story, I’m always fascinated by these tales of missing information discovered post facto decades later.
That the dog tag will make it back to the family is even cooler.
Great story of a fellow Hoosier soldier. RIP, PFC Davis.
I don’t want to sound like a nit-picker, but the AP story says the dog tag will go to Davis’s nephew in Victoria, Texas, not Victoria, Indiana.
The 27th Infantry Division is still alive in the form of the 27th IBCT, NYARNG. It is headquartered in Syracuse NY, and was my old unit before I was retired.
They also suffered the largest Banzai attack of the war in the Pacific and 2 buildings on Ft Drum were named after MOH recipients from the 27th.
Baker hall and O’Brien barracks on Camp Smith, NY (Peekskill) are named for the 2 of the 3 MOH winner of the 105th Inf on Saipan. This man was 165th INF (old 69th NY Fighting 69th)
I moved 2 WW2 memorial markers from Camp Smith to the 27th’s HQ at Hancock Field a few years ago. I was told that they were carved from rock from the South Pacific theater – can’t say if it was true or not. They were right near the BOQ on Smith, and I believe that the 27th put them in a display outside their HQ now.
I hope the family keeps this and hands it down to succeeding generations. Some families do that, but others just don’t get what it means.
Sadly, it seems so … and they lose part of their heritage.