Here we have yet another entry in a series devoted to postcards from my collection. I have many that are unused, but the ones actually mailed are double snapshots of history both for the card itself and the message written on it.
The postmark on this card is dated August 20, 1943. The front shows Jefferson Hospital in Birmingham, constructed in 1940 with the help of New Deal loans and a grant. The hospital opened in February 1941 with 575 beds, 11 operating rooms, maternity wards and an all-electric kitchen. For two years during World War II the 10th and 11th floors of Jefferson Hospital housed a secret training facility for officers and enlisted men of various armed forces units.
The facility became a center of the new Medical College of Alabama that welcomed the first students in September 1945. Renamed Jefferson Tower in 1979, the building remains a landmark on the giant University of Alabama at Birmingham campus.
The card was printed by the Merchants Cigar and Candy Company in Birmingham. Other city cards from the company that I spotted on eBay and at Alabama Mosaic include Lake Purdy Dam, Alabama Power Company building, a rock garden pool, looking east on 20th Street at night and the Sloss-Sheffield furnace. The company seems to have operated from about 1937 until 1946, although I did not find them under either "Cigars" or "Candy" in the 1945 Birmingham Yellow Pages directory.
So what does the message side of the card tell us? The sender is Charles Troutman, a soldier stationed at Camp Sibert, a World War II chemical weapons training facility that sprawled over 36,000 acres in Etowah and St. Clair counties. The facility opened in 1942 and was named after Major General William Sibert, the first head of the Army's Chemical Warfare Service and a Gadsden native.
Troutman is writing to his father, Charles H. Troutman, Sr., in Flagstaff, Arizona. He notes that he was up that day at 4am and began shooting practice at 6. He shot a 161 which he declared "was good but could have been better." The previous night had been cool but today was a "scorcher" although the air was "unusually dry". Troutman mentions "Kodachrome", the Eastman Kodak film introduced in 1935. Not sure what he means by "OCS" unless it refers to the 35mm slide film Kodak put on the market in 1936. At any rate, "some were very good."
Another question concerns the "OTB 01039771" at the top of the card. Does the abbreviation stand for "Operations Training Branch"?
On August 10 Charles had written his mother, using a postcard that showed climbers on Mount Washington, New Hampshire. "Getting cooler", he said. "Have a long training film tonight. Sure is tiresome here. Everyone is on edge."
As the historical marker below notes, Camp Sibert was activated on December 25, 1942, and deactivated almost exactly three years later on December 31, 1945. The camp could hold about 30,000 troops, and almost half of all the U.S.'s World War II CWS soldiers trained there. You can read more about Camp Sibert here and here. Many photos taken at Camp Sibert can be found on Alabama Mosaic.
In 2017 Lindsey Rebekah Wilson wrote a thesis at Jacksonville State University, "Camp Sibert: Inside the Training Camp and its Significance to the Chemical Warfare Service".
