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National Guardsman Reunited With Lost Dog Tag 50 Years Later

SELINSGROVE — A former Army National Guardsman has been reunited with his dog tag nearly 50 years after it went missing. The 69-year-old Selinsgrove man w...

SELINSGROVE -- A former Army National Guardsman has been reunited with his dog tag nearly 50 years after it went missing.

The 69-year-old Selinsgrove man was just 21 years old when he lost it.

Before Wednesday Charles Laudenslager and Aaron Shiltz were total strangers but now they could be considered friends.

They met through chance all due to a dog tag.

Aaron`s construction crew was replacing a curb at the intersection of South High Street and Chestnut Street in Selinsgrove when he found a single dog tag underneath the concrete.

“I just dug along the side of the curb and a couple shovels down I saw something shiny and I picked it up,” said Aaron. “And took it over and showed it to my brother-in-law, he was in the Marines and I said is this thing real, and he said oh yeah, that's a real dog tag.”

So Aaron and his wife took to social media.

lost-dog-tag

They were quickly able to discover the man he was looking for, Charles Laudenslager, lived right here in Selinsgrove.

“Put it on Facebook and everybody started sharing it on Facebook and then I found you,” said Aaron. “I'm really glad to give it back to you.”

“Oh I was happy, I was tickled pink, wasn't I?” said Charles.

“I think you were in shock!” said Aaron.

“Yeah, I really was, I kept looking at, didn't have my glasses on,” said Charles.

Charles said he got the tag when he joined the National Guard at the age of 17.

He had dreams of a military career, but that was quickly cut short when Charles was badly injured in a car crash while on leave.

“My face was all smashed in, that's where all these scars and stuff come from,” said Charles. “That was it for the career, I begged for me to stay in but they said, we can't, you're too buggered up, you know.”

The 69-year-old Charles hasn't seen the tag since his discharge from the National Guard after that crash.

Now it's made its way home.

“It shows up, 50 some years later, at my door.”

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