Don Wagner returning WWI dog tag

Don Wagner, poet of Lewes Beach, maintains a private museum of interesting license tags and war  memorabilia in his former car dealership building on Savannah Road alongside Two Dips Ice Cream.

In his collection are a number of so-called dog tags - the metal identification badges that soldiers wear around their necks on small chains. "I was looking at them recently and decided they really belong with members of the soldiers' families. Family history is very important to me and I think these dog tags can help others appreciate their family history," said Don when he stopped by the Cape Gazette office recently.

To commemorate the first return that he plans after tracking down relatives of a soldier in Annapolis, Don wrote the following that he wanted to share with our readers:

I'M COMING HOME

Seventy years I've been away.  It's time to go home.  I hung around his neck in that big war, which was known as World War One. The name inscribed on me was Corporal Edgar F. Berry, Company A, U.S.A. He wore me proudly and took me home, and in 1942 his son gave me to his friend Don, who collected war treasures. Now Don wants me to go home and be cherished by the Berry family.  But Mr. Berry, the owner of me, passed away and so has his son "Skip." But his son had three sons, and search of records, and many sources of information, has located one of his sons in Annapolis, Md. So now I'm coming home and hope to be a collectible for the third generation of the Berry family.

Signed, Dog Tag

Don said he plans to return as many of the dog tags he has collected through the years as possible.