(courtesy of Pat Lacy) |
 |
La Garde General Hospital (1945)
its 105-acres appeared to have had nearly 100 buildings including wards,
dining halls, barracks, administrative and maintenance facilities.
Some POWs were held there and worked as orderlies or grounds keepers. On
March 4, 1946, the facility transitioned to a Veterans Administration
Hospital.
 La
Garde Sentinel
hospital's own newspaper, November 1946 announced the final stages
of closure as the last 188 patients left the 1650 bed hospital and were
transferred to the Kennedy General Hospital at Memphis, TN.
Whether Herbert Hobbs also went there is unknown. |
|
Grave marker of Herbert F.
Hobbs in the Middlesboro Cemetery, Middlesboro (Bell), Kentucky.
1st Lt Hobbs served as the
Mess Officer while the regiment was posted at Camp Mackall, NC.
In November 1943 he was transferred to the Infantry Officer Replacement
Pool IRTC at Camp Croft, SC.
Following the end of the war, Herbert continued his
service as a Master Sergeant in the National Guard but later had his
commission re-instated. He retired as a Major. |
Although his rank is not
listed, he may have been a MSgt at the time that he was listed on the
manifest of the USAT Algonquin.
The ship departed Balboa,
Canal Zone, Panama on 16 Jan 1948 and arrived at the port of New
Orleans, LA five days later.
Hobbs appears on line 4.
He and the first 3 men are shown with a U.S. destination of La Garde
Hospital, New Orleans, LA. It is unclear whether these men were to
be patients or hospital staff. Even more curious is the fact that
the hospital supposedly was a Veterans administration hospital by this
time. |
