Dog Tag, D Battery, 519th AAA Aw Bn
Identified to Kenneth C. Mahan #39019139
Small grouping with a Son in Service AA pin, AA Command patch and a WW2 steel alloy Next of Kin (mother) Dog Tag, second type November 1941 – July 1943. The early types were made of steel and could accommodate 5 lines of text, with 18 spaces per line (ref. Cir # 151, AR 600-40, WD, Dec. 12, 1940). Steel and stainless steel were also in use.
The official Dog Tag required the following information:
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first line: surname of soldier, first name, second initial
second line: second line: army serial number, tetanus immunization, tetanus toxoid, blood type
third line: name next of kin
fourth line: address, number, street, next of kin
fifth line: address, city, state + religion
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Sgt. Kenneth C. Mahan
Sergeant
Kenneth C. Mahan
Sgt. Kenneth C. Mahan
Kenneth Clarence Mahan was born on January 9, 1916, in Defiance, Ohio, to Bertha Emeline Hardy and David Clay Mahan.
Kenneth C. Mahan joined the US Marine Corps on September 20, 1935 and discharged four years later on September 18, 1939. After the US entry into the war, he was drafted into the Army on February 11, 1942 at Fort MacArthur, San Pedro, California. He completed basic training with the 602th Coast Artillery at Fort Bliss, Texas, and later continued his anti-aircraft training at Buffalo, New York. While there he was assigned to D Battery, 519th AAA Gun Battalion, Coast Artillery Corps. They departed for England on February 27, 1944 and landed at Normandy on June 12, 1944. Travelling through Carentan, St. Lo they made their way to Belgium as part of Operation Antwerp X.
On November 11, 1944, the battalion moved into its positions near the small village of Westmeerbeek. After little over a montht he battalion moved by motor convoy to Namur, Belgium, for the AA Defense of vital auto and railroad bridges across the Meusse River in response to the German breakthrough in the Bulge. There they were also assigned a secondary Anti-tank mission.
Kenneth Mahan served in the Normandy, Northern France and Rhineland Campaigns from March 10, 1944 to September 6, 1945. Among other decoration he was awarded the Good Conduct Medal, WWII Victory Medal, American Theater Campaign Medal and The European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with 3 Bronze Campaign Stars. Discharged November 8, 1945.
Kenneth Clarence Mahan married Elma Lois Sutton, in Ukiah, California, on November 10, 1948, when he was 32 years old. He died on June 5, 2013, when he was 97 years old.