Vietnam vet getting dog tag back 48 years after losing it

(AP) — The U.S. Marine Corps dog tag being peddled by a war artifacts seller caught Charles Thompson's eye when he was vacationing with friends in Vietnam.

After hours of Internet searching over the course of the next year, the resident of Weybridge, England, was pleasantly surprised to learn the Marine was still alive.

Thompson, a 26-year-old who works in investment management at BNY Mellon in London, came across the tag just south of the city of Hue on the central Vietnam coast.

In the following months after returning home, Thompson said his initial online searches turned up nothing.

The page had a military photo of Tilghman and referred to his time as an aerial observer during the war in the same province where Thompson found the tag.