andrejm75 Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Greetings everybody, few years ago I purchased a set of ID tags (dog tags) apparently belonging to a member of 72 Special Brigade of Yugoslav Army from Slobodan Milosevic era (these are from 1994/95). Tags look good but I have never seen anything like them. They are engraved with unique citizen number of the person they apparently belonged to, his blood type (Rh), name of the unit and other numbers I cannot decipher. The tags are on the leather string and were very obviously worn. The wearer's date of birth from his unique citizen number is 23/09/1975 which would have made him 19 or 20 when he was in the unit- makes sense as during that time conscription was still active in the country and the army was mostly made up of men aged 18-22. Have any of you seen anything similar or have knowledge of the tags as I was unaware that Yugoslav Army was issuing any ID tags during that time? Regards
paja Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Greetings, I never saw ID tags like that before but of course that doesn't mean that they are a fantasy piece. I don't know if they had special kind being that they are special unit, but the regular ID tags were in form of case with piece of paper with information about wearer inside...
paja Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Photos of that regular ID case. http://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2015/post-7937-0-78538700-1420468594.jpghttp://gmic.co.uk/uploads/monthly_01_2015/post-7937-0-67025600-1420468602.jpg
paja Posted January 5, 2015 Posted January 5, 2015 Paper. VP (Military Post) _______________ ČIN (Rank) _______________ PREZIME, OČEVO IME, IME (Surname, Father's name, Name) ______________________________________________________ GOD. ROĐ. (Year of birth) _________ MESTO (Place) __________ OPŠTINA (Municipality) ___________________________________
andrejm75 Posted January 6, 2015 Author Posted January 6, 2015 Yes, I have one of those..not sure when they stopped using them though... I believe these were JNA issue. You're right maybe 72 brigade had their own as part of special unit..who knows. Thanks for your reply
paja Posted January 6, 2015 Posted January 6, 2015 You are are right those were used by JNA but I am pretty sure Army of Yugoslavia used them as well. Very similar cases were used in WW1 by Kingdom of Serbia. I checked that personal number (JMBG) here: http://jmbg.brmbrm.com/index.phpaccording to the results that person was born in Sarajevo. To be honest it's little unusual to see JMBG and name of the unit on dog tags, at least to me, but like I said I really don't know much about this subject...
Rogi Posted January 6, 2015 Posted January 6, 2015 Although the tags looks interesting, I don't think they are official issue, maybe tailor made but they are pretty simplistic in design and lay out.My main thoughts stem to, why would a Special Unit want Special Tags made for the unit in question? Why distinguish yourself that much from the standard army practices, it would only make you a bigger target in the end.Odd tags indeed and worthy of further research.
andrejm75 Posted January 7, 2015 Author Posted January 7, 2015 Hmmm..that JMBG now has me interested, that's my vintage year and I was born in Sarajevo as well...there are all these numbers on the tags that have me confused...under the JMBG it's got numbers 016051 1092 and then Rh (D) other side says 72 Jurisno Desantna Brigada. Other tag says Specijalna Padobransko Diverzantska Jedinica (which I believe 72 brigade was part of ) and then JMBG again and numbers MART 94/95 1DB- DC. The numbers sound fairly official but I wander why the unit name would be writen on them. My theory is the member might have made them after his 12 monts as a memento
paja Posted January 7, 2015 Posted January 7, 2015 (edited) I've been digging up info on that unit and apparently it was formed in 1992. First name 72. десантно-јуришна бригада was "quickly" (I wasn't able to determine when exactly) changed to 72. специјална бригада ( 72nd Special Brigade). Brigade consisted of: -Military Police Counter-terrorist Battalion (Батаљон војне полиције за противтерористичка дејства) -1st Reconnaissance-Commando Battalion (1. извиђачко-диверзантски батаљон) -Sudden Strike Battalion (Батаљон за препадна дејства) - it's name was later changed to 2nd Reconnaissance-Commando Battalion -Support Battalion (Батаљон за подршку) - later leveled to company. -Logistic units. Inscription "Specijalna padobransko diverzantska jedinica" is strange, I think it's not name of some lower-level formation within brigade. There was for example Parachute Counter-terrorist Company as part of Military Police Counter-terrorist Battalion. I'm not sure but that other number could be VES (Војно-евиденциона специјалност ВЕС) number... If so it would be interesting to find out what specialty is behind that number. It would be great if we could discover when exactly was the first name of the brigade changed, if that happened before 94/95 I think we can presume that the tags are fantasy piece. Now about those tags in general (in Serbian матрикула) they were issued I think only during war (and perhaps during emergencies). For obvious reasons there should be two pieces of that paper with information inside case. Edited January 7, 2015 by paja
paja Posted January 7, 2015 Posted January 7, 2015 Did some research on VES VJ used same classification as JNA but according to information I found such number didn't exist in classification.
andrejm75 Posted January 8, 2015 Author Posted January 8, 2015 Wow, that's what I call research, thanks a million. yeah thet're starting to look more and more like fantasy piece
paja Posted January 8, 2015 Posted January 8, 2015 Don't mention it, my pleasure. Unfortunately I wasn't able to find more information, if I discover something new I will let you know
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