Restoring Faith Under Fire: How a 5-Year Legal Battle Brought Scripture Back to Military Dog Tags

A fresh look at Restoring Faith Under Fire: How a 5-Year Legal Battle Brought Scripture Back to Military Dog Tags, offering readers critical context.

Kenny Vaughan founded Shields of Strength in 1998, working out of Beaumont, Texas. Vaughan originally printed verses on dog tags to conquer his own personal anxiety while competing in national water-skiing championships. When a friend deployed to the Middle East asked for a durable tag featuring Philippians 4:13 strength, Vaughan pressed a small batch. Demand exploded organically by word of mouth.

Over the next twenty years, the company distributed an estimated four million dog tags to active-duty personnel, first responders, and military families. The tags were not standard government issue. Soldiers, Marines, sailors, and airmen bought them individually or received them in care packages sent by community groups. Unit commanders frequently ordered custom runs for battalions shipping out on high-risk rotations, viewing the tags as personal tokens of resolve.

For service members enduring months of combat operations, physical danger, and isolation, these small metal pendants functioned as tactile anchors. Each piece combined the official emblem of their service branch on the front with biblical text engraved on the reverse. For many, carrying scripture for hard times provided psychological stability when coping with operational trauma.