--- description: An ex-marine will get one of his missing dog tags back some 50 years after he lost it in the Vietnam War. title: Veteran Will Get His Dog Tag Back 50 Years After He Lost It image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt263f6c9ffa8115ad/69888000a988ca38996b6d40/dog-lost-vietnam-tag.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Marine Veteran Will Get His Dog Tag Back 50 Years After He Lost It in Vietnam by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 2, 2016 9:51 PM CUT  Charles Thompson, left, stands with Vietnam War veteran Richard Tilghman Jr., in New York on March 1, 2016. Charles Thompson, left, stands with Vietnam War veteran Richard Tilghman Jr., in New York on March 1, 2016.Scott Pepper—BNY Mellow/AP by [Daniel White](/author/daniel-white/) ## Daniel White Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 2, 2016 9:51 PM CUT An ex-marine will get one of his missing dog tags back some 50 years after he lost it in the Vietnam War. Richard Tilghman Jr. will finally have the tag returned Thursday morning in New York City during an appearance on Fox News, according to the _Associated Press_. Charles Thompson, an Englishman, found Tilghman’s tag in October 2014 during a vacation in Vietnam.  The dog tag identifying U.S. Marine R. A. Tilghman, Jr. Charles Thompson—BNY Mellow/AP Thompson says he bought the tag for $3 from a man selling war artifacts with the idea of finding its owner, according to _AP_, later finding Tilghman through Internet searches. He ultimately contacted Tilghman in December. Tilghman, for his part, came home with only one of his two dog tags, but doesn’t remember losing the one Thompson found. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4245490/marine-veteran-will-get-his-dog-tag-back-50-years-after-he-lost-it-in-vietnam/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4245490/marine-veteran-will-get-his-dog-tag-back-50-years-after-he-lost-it-in-vietnam/"},"headline":"Marine Veteran Will Get His Dog Tag Back 50 Years After He Lost It in Vietnam","datePublished":"2016-03-02T21:51:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-05-11T05:00:19.076Z","description":"He will get his tag back Thursday on Fox News","url":"https://time.com/4245490/marine-veteran-will-get-his-dog-tag-back-50-years-after-he-lost-it-in-vietnam/","keywords":["Military","Bizarre","People"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt263f6c9ffa8115ad/69888000a988ca38996b6d40/dog-lost-vietnam-tag.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Daniel White","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/daniel-white/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt263f6c9ffa8115ad/69888000a988ca38996b6d40/dog-lost-vietnam-tag.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Vietnam Dog Tag","caption":"Vietnam Dog Tag","creditText":"Scott Pepper—BNY Mellow/AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4245490/marine-veteran-will-get-his-dog-tag-back-50-years-after-he-lost-it-in-vietnam/","name":"Marine Veteran Will Get His Dog Tag Back 50 Years After He Lost It in Vietnam"}}]}] ```