Fallen US WWII hero's Army dog tag found on Pacific island

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Dorothy Hollingsworth was just 7 when her brother Tom left the family farm in Indiana to join the Army a few months before the United States entered World War II.

Thomas E. Davis was killed in one of the war's final, major battles, a tangible reminder of her beloved sibling has been found on the Pacific island of Saipan — one of his Army dog tags.

Cultural historian Genevieve Cabrera told The Associated Press in an email that she found the discolored metal tag sticking out of the soil of a farm field on Saipan in early 2014.

The tags, attached to a chain worn around the neck, were the only item of military-issued gear a soldier wore daily that included potentially life-saving information such as blood type and when a tetanus shot was administered.

According to wartime records kept at the New York State Military Museum, home to many of the 27th Division's documents, Davis earned the Silver Star on Saipan in June 1944 for risking his own life to rescue a wounded comrade "at a time when the American front was undergoing brutal Japanese artillery and mortar fire."