For 70 years this WWII veteran's dog tag sat in a drawer, never seeing the light of day

Nearly eight decades later, the number still rolls off his tongue like the day he got it.

“38721300,” Clifton Henson said while holding his military identification tags. “I guess you never forget that if you learn it the way I did."

The World War II veteran remembers landing in Japan on Nov. 11, 1945. At 91 years old, Henson is still extremely sharp and recalls stories from his service in great detail.

The stories and memories, however, are things he hasn’t cared much to think about over the years. In fact, Henson was asked to travel to Washington, D.C. with Honor Flight Arizona twice before reluctantly agreeing to the trip.

“I just didn’t think I wanted to be here and take the stress,” Henson said.

READ: Honor Flight recognizes some of Arizona's bravest WWII and Korean War heroes

You may never find anybody more proud of their time in the service, but life just goes on for many of these men and women who were lucky enough to make it home alive.

Back to his military identification number, and the metal tags they’re pressed into. Those tags sat in a drawer for over 70 years, never seeing the light of day until Henson decided to relive his service with Honor Flight Arizona.

“I haven’t had these on in about 70 something years now,” Henson said while recalling some of his close calls in the war.

Maybe an afterthought but never forgotten, Henson’s tags are a symbol of his service. Just a number when it comes to identification, but so much more than that when you consider what his service means to America.

Henson’s favorite part of the tags continues to be the fact there are still two. The second identical tag is a duplicate made for taking off a corpse in the event of death.

“I’m just really glad they’re still together,” Henson’s son Dayle said when looking at the objects for the first time in his life. “I’ll be 69 in two months and this is the first time I’ve ever seen the dog tags.”

Those are 69 years of life the world would never have known without that second tag. Consider how many years of life we all owe to the ones laying in a drawer without a duplicate.