Camp Sibert, Alabama's First Chemical Warfare Center

In the last post, I said that Leo Olson of DeKalb County, Illinois, had been promoted to corporal and was stationed at this camp, though the newspaper article called it Camp Siever, Alabama.  The actual name was Camp Sibert.

From Waymaking.

From the marker:

"On 6/18/1942 the U.S. took possession of 36,300 acres in Etowah and adjoining St. Clair County to establish Alabama's first Chemical Warfare Center.  The area was dedicated on 12/25/1942 and named for U.S. Army M/G William Luther Sibert, first chief of Chemical Warfare Service (CWS) and a native of Etowah County.

The camp served as  a Unit Training Center and a Replacement Training Center for the CWS and could accommodate up to 30,000 troops.  Forty-seven percent of all CWS units of WW II were trained here.  The camp was deactivated on 12/31/1945.

--GreGen