Fellow Marine Tanker returns Jack Hahn’s dog tag, 45 years later
Palatka, Florida – Vietnam Marine Tanker Veteran, Ron Colucci, and his wife Carol Colucci, left New Jersey on a flight bound for Florida last Friday – on a mission – to return Colucci’s Tanker brother, Jack Hahn’s dog tag.
Colucci lost his dog tags in Vietnam in 1969. He remembers it vividly. It was on Liberty Road when his tank was hit and he ended up lying in a rice paddy.
When he learned of Sue Quinn-Morris’s involvement with the Dog Tag Project, he asked her to check if his dog tags were in the collections she was working with. He had always hoped his dog tags would be found. Unfortunately, his was not one of the dog tags in either collection. However, she did find, after searching through the Tankers Association Roster online, that the dog tag of his Marine brother, John “Jack” Hahn was one in the Senator Beach Dog Tag Collection.
The Colucci’s, along with friend Wes Barnett and members of the VFW Post 7909 in Jacksonville, made the trek down to Palatka to present Hahn with his dog tag at the VFW Post 3349. In addition to members of both VFWs, the District Commander was also in attendance.
Hahn’s dog tag ended up in the holding of Senator Beach after he was approached for help by Manny Santayana. In 1998, Santayana was touring the Ho Chi Minh trail and stumbled onto a Vietnamese man who made a living out of extracting bombs from the ground, grinding up the metal and selling it for profit. Sometimes he would stumble upon dog tags from U.S. soldiers, which he would collect and store in an ammo bag under his bed. He had 105 of them, and he just harbored them away, thinking perhaps that they were worth something.,” Santayana recalled. “Well, that day they were worth 100 bucks.”
Over the next several years, Santayana was able to make some returns to dog tag owners, but he eventually became too busy to continue with the research.
In 2009, he enlisted the help of Senator James Beach from NJ. Santayana’s Dog Tag Collection is now in the holding of Senator Beach and a Dog Tag Committee was formed. Quinn-Morris, who is a part of the Senator James Beach Dog Tag Committee, researches the dog tags to try and find the owners so they may be returned.
As for this dog tag return, what could have been more fitting then having a Marine Tanker bringing his fellow Marine brother’s dog tag home to him, after 45 years…
(Return on January 13, 2012)