Identification tags worn by Lt. Louise Lomax

Source catalog description

This description refers to material held by Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Visual details below describe the original material.

Louise Virginia Lomax joined the Army Nurse Corps (ANC) as a 2nd Lieutenant in March 1943. Upon joining the ANC, Lt. Lomax was issued this identification tag, also called a "dog tag," which listed important identifying information including her name, her Army Serial Number (N-760431), the date of her most recent Tetanus shot, her blood type, and her religious affiliation. After training as a psychiatric nurse at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, D.C., Lt. Lomax was stationed at Tuskegee Army Air Field in Alabama, home of the Tuskegee Airmen, by September 1943. Lomax remained at Tuskegee during the war, where she was eventually promoted to 1st Lieutenant. After the war, Lt. Lomax went on to serve at Lockbourne Army Air Base in Ohio; Provident Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland; at VA hospitals in Downey, Illinois; and Perry Point, Maryland; and finally at the Army’s Percy Jones General Hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan. Lt. Lomax retired from active duty in March 1949 and transferred to the Reserve Corps. After four years in the Reserves, Lt. Lomax was honorably discharged from the Army Nurse Corps in April 1953. Identification tag (dog tags) owned by Lt. Louise Lomax, Army Nurse Corps. The metal tags are attached to a metal chain. The tag is embossed with Lt. Lomax’s name, serial number, and blood type.

Catalog date

1943-1953

Recorded places

Tuskegee, Macon County, Alabama, United States, North and Central America

Recorded subjects

African American; Medicine; Military; Nursing; Segregation; Tuskegee Airmen; U.S. History, 1945-1953; Women

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