BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The long-lost U.S. Army identification tag of a North Dakota soldier has been returned to his widow after it resurfaced in Russia.
Gov. Doug Burgum gave Ronald Hepper’s military tag to his widow, Ruth Hepper of Bismarck, on Wednesday. According to Burgum’s office, Ronald Hepper had kept a set of his dog tags in his boots, and had been in Vietnam just a few months when a blast from a hand grenade blew his boots off his body in June 1969.
Hepper woke up in the hospital with no boots and no dog tags.
The military ID was found by an American citizen traveling in Russia, and returned to North Dakota.
