Off Topic Western Bowie with SSN number

[kwackster]

A wile ago i bought an older model Western Bowie on E-Bay, and just today i found out that the knife has a number engraved in the brass guard.

It's the knife i posted on page 2 in this thread: https://www.bladeforums.com/threads/western-bowie-usa.1507584/

Upon googling it turns out to be a social security number, which is traceable to the obituary of a specific person who lived in Utica, Kentucky USA.
The knife itself was made in the 1965-1966 timeframe, and i was wondering if engraving an SSN number into personal belongings like a knife was common practice among US soldiers going into Vietnam.
Does anyone here have any info ?

 

[annr]

I do not know about this practice among US soldiers.

I do know that engraving/etching one's SS# on ANY/ALL household objects considered valuable (including furniture, lamps or whatever the person thought was valuable) was done ca. 1970 and perhaps earlier. This was done for the obvious reasons of deterring theft and reclaiming stolen property.

Now, crooks want your SS# as much or more than your furniture, etc.!

 

[DocT]

Soldiers and other service people had to engrave at least the last 4 digits of their SSN onto any items they owned that were not military issue. So that is a possibility. However, like ANNR said, it was also popular to do that at one time, but no longer because of identity theft.