Dog Tags is a 2008 American film written and directed by Damion Dietz and starring Paul Preiss and Bart Fletcher.

[1] The film is the coming of age story of Nate Merritt (played by Paul Preiss), who stuck in bad relationships with his fiancée and mother decides to enlist in the military, although he is not sure.

In the midst of all this turmoil in his life, he meets Andy Forte (played by Bart Fletcher), a carefree gay man, and the two immediately strike a chord and become soul mates trying to help each other through their dilemmas and troubled youths.

Nate's mother Deb (Candy Clark) is a single mother who hides the real identity of the father Gene (Hoyt Richards) from her son, although the alcoholic Gene still continues to live a destitute life in the vicinity in a one-room shack surviving on permanent disability cheques and doing odd jobs on the side.

He is led to think his father is a married military man called Mark Dessau (Keythe Farley), who had a long-term relationship with Deb, Nate's mother.

"[2] Confronted by Nate for a last time and upon an ultimatum to his mother that he will quit his prospective military career, Deb finally reveals that Gene is the real father.