U.S. Army Training Center – Alan L. Douglas

Alan Lucas Douglas (1910–1984) was an elementary school teacher from Garden City, New York, who entered U.S. Army service on 8 December 1942. Assigned to the Infantry Replacement Training Center at Fort McClellan, Alabama, he served with Company A, 8th Training Battalion, 2nd Training Regiment, where he was promoted to Corporal and selected for detached service and the Enlisted Cadre School. By December 1944 Douglas had attained the rank of First Sergeant while serving with the Army Service Forces Training Center at Camp Lee, Virginia, the latest documented stage of his wartime military service.

Well worn black crackle Zippo fitted with a wartime steel insert that is engraved with Douglas's name and addresses accumulated throughout his lifetime. The front is engraved «A. L. Douglas» with his Garden City, New York address. The reverse bears «Alan Douglas», followed by «Chapel Lane», «Brewster», «Mass.», and «Venice», «Florida», documenting the owner's later residence in Massachusetts and his final home in Florida, and preserving a remarkable record of his life from wartime service through retirement.