✅ SOLVED Very old military ID?

[richtam123]

I dug this one today but it left me stumped! I thought maybe a canine tag but it only has a single hole. So I'll leave it to the experts to figure out!

R.M. Daughtrey
SR. OFF
USP - LK

2 inches by 3/4 inch.

 

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[nhbenz]

Well, I think you could rule out a military canine, as they're enlisted, rather than officers. Interesting tag!

 

[Graham]

Hi! this is my first post on TreasureNet because when I saw your post I knew exactly what it was, so I made an account just to tell you.

The tag reads:

R. M. Daughtrey
Senior Officer
United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth Kansas

What you have there is a what we call a "Chit" in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. An officer like Officer Daughtrey or myself carries about 5 to 10 of these pieces of metal on our duty belts while on duty, and when a set of keys or a tool is issued to the officer the keys come off a hook, and the Chit with the officer's info goes on the hook. That way you can more easily maintain key and tool accountability. The only difference from Officer Daughtrey's chits and mine, is that over the years the shape of the chit has changed from the dog tag shape to just a circular piece of brass with just our first initial and last name stamped on it. I'm a Senior Officer at Federal Correctional Institution Milan, and I used to work at United States Penitentiary Big Sandy.

That's a very cool relic! At least in my opinion. I don't know if you're anywhere near USP Leavenworth, but I'm pretty sure that if you were to step into their front lobby and tell your story they would be very happy to see it. I looked on our Bureau intranet just a little while ago, and a search of all staff names (both living and deceased) on electronic record turned up nothing. But Leavenworth was one of the Bureau's first facilities and a lot of their records, I'm sure, never made it into the electronic archives. You kinda made my day with this post. It's not every day that I'm an expert on something on this site! Great Find and Happy Hunting!

 

[BosnMate]

Really interesting.

 

[richtam123]

Hi! this is my first post on TreasureNet because when I saw your post I knew exactly what it was, so I made an account just to tell you.

The tag reads:

R. M. Daughtrey
Senior Officer
United States Penitentiary - Leavenworth Kansas

What you have there is a what we call a "Chit" in the Federal Bureau of Prisons. An officer like Officer Daughtrey or myself carries about 5 to 10 of these pieces of metal on our duty belts while on duty, and when a set of keys or a tool is issued to the officer the keys come off a hook, and the Chit with the officer's info goes on the hook. That way you can more easily maintain key and tool accountability. The only difference from Officer Daughtrey's chits and mine, is that over the years the shape of the chit has changed from the dog tag shape to just a circular piece of brass with just our first initial and last name stamped on it. I'm a Senior Officer at Federal Correctional Institution Milan, and I used to work at United States Penitentiary Big Sandy.

That's a very cool relic! At least in my opinion. I don't know if you're anywhere near USP Leavenworth, but I'm pretty sure that if you were to step into their front lobby and tell your story they would be very happy to see it. I looked on our Bureau intranet just a little while ago, and a search of all staff names (both living and deceased) on electronic record turned up nothing. But Leavenworth was one of the Bureau's first facilities and a lot of their records, I'm sure, never made it into the electronic archives. You kinda made my with this post. It's not every day that I'm an expert on something on this site! Great Find and Happy Hunting!

Wow! Thank you Graham for the excellent expert report on the prison chit! Any idea what span of years it might have been used? I live in SW Missouri so maybe he retired in this area. If you happen to come up with anything on RM Daughtrey's history please let me know. Solved in a BIG way!

 

[Kiros32]

Great ID Graham, and welcome to the club!

 

[Graham]

Hey thanks guys. I'm glad I could be of some help. I love this site, and I'm happy to have finally created an account. Unfortunately I can't be any more specific about Officer Daughtrey's history. I wish I could be! If I actually worked at USP Leavenworth I could be of much more help, but like I said the electronic records only go back so far. USP Leavenworth has been in operation under the Depatment of justice since the mid-1890's, and the oldest record I could find anywhere (wikipedia) was from 1901. I'll post anything I might be able to dig up in the future.

 

[AU Seeker]

Thanks for your ID on the chit Graham, very interesting and nice find richtam123.

 

[BigWaveDave]

that was awesome