New York City Bought 2.5 Million Dog Tags

It seems that back when we were being told to "duck and cover" in case of nuclear attack, our fearless leaders were preparing to identity the dead, burnt and twisted bodies of millions of school children.

The entire scheme, notes the PaleoFuture blog, depended on a lot of dog tags. 

In February of 1952 the city of New York bought 2.5 million dog tags. By April of that year, just about every kid in the city from kindergarten to fourth grade had a tag with their name on it. Kids in many other cities like San Francisco, Seattle, Las Vegas and Philadelphia also got dog tags, allowing for easy identification should the unthinkable occur.

But educators weren't considering just dog tags to identify the scores of dead and injured children that would result if the cold war suddenly turned hot. They also considered tattoos.

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