From Italy to South Carolina – Dog Tags Lost in World War II Coming Home

February 14, 2022
There is a lot of abuse and misuse of social media but the power of it can also be use for great good.  Here is one such story.

Recently, a man in Italy posted in a Facebook page for Simpsonville, SC about some dog tags recovered. He was looking for the son of Douglas C. Byrd who was from Clinton, SC.

His post read:  “Greetings to all citizens of Simpsonville. I am writing to you from Italy and I need your help. I am looking for a certain Douglas C. Byrd jr who lives in Simpsonville, his father Douglas C Byrd sr. back in 1944 he was fighting in Italy against the Nazis. We are a group of military history enthusiasts and a few days ago we found an identification plate of the soldier from underground. Now we are looking for the direct descendant for the donation. the dog tag has to go home. I thank those who will be of help to me.”

Through the Facebook postings, Zaur Gabashvili and Douglas Byrd, Jr. were able to connect and exchange phone numbers.

Zaur Gabashvili lives in Anzio, Italy. Anzio experienced some of the most severe fighting against entrenched Nazis in the Italian Campaign. It was a six month slugfest, with over 7,000 Americans killed. The campaign finally ended when Rome was captured, but, unfortunately, the German army was able to escape capture and entrenched all over again across the Italian peninsula at a line further north.

Douglas Byrd, Sr. drove a tank dozer. This is a piece of equipment the combat engineers used to cross rivers where the Nazis had blown the bridges. The tank would push a large pipe into the river stream, then grade the approach so the army could cross these rivers to the other side. Byrd obviously lost his dog tags during this operation. This was surprising to his son, because he distinctly remembers seeing his father’s dog tags, which he carried in his wallet. Those dog tags were apparently replacement tags. Douglas Byrd, Sr. died in 1986.

Now, after 78 years, and because of the care and concern of a fine fellow in Italy, those dog tags are coming home.