American Red Cross Postcard - Printed In Paris, Pershing Portrait, WW1 Era

I have this postcard of Gen'l Pershing, and the back indicates it's from the American Red Cross, and, in small print, printed in Paris.

I'm trying to understand for what purpose it might have been used.

Clearly, it's a military theme, and I'm thinking that perhaps this card would have been available at ARC canteens or centers for soldiers to send a quick note back home to?

It would not have been for POW mail purposes, would it? Wouldn't it be indicated on the card if that were the case? Or would this protocol not have been as well-established as it was by WW2?

Any thoughts?

Thanks in advance!

(I'm not particularly trying to promote it, but it is listed here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/patriotic-G...STRK:MESE:IT )

I assume that this would have appeared very late in the war, given Wilson's very belated commitment of US troops and the further timelag before Pershing would have received the Legion of Honour.

A very good point. I figured it was post-Armistice, but while American troops were still there.

Just did a little Googling: apparently US troops were there until Jan 1923:

http://www.eur.army.mil/organization/history.htm

I would think that the purpose was soldier's mail; note the absence of a stamp box.

Cards intended for PoW mail often had 'instructions' and explanatory text in multiple languages, precluding large illustrations.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

Interesting point about the absence of the stamp box.

So, would soldiers' mail typically have been transported back to the US (by the military? by the Red Cross?) and then entered into the mailstream? Or how would the mail have typically gotten to the recipient?

Thanks for adding this interesting consideration!

My SWAG (Sill Wild-Assed Guess) is that - after the soldier wrote "free" in the upper-right hand corner of the address side - the Red Cross would have handed the cards over to the military post for transport with the military's official mail, but that and ten cents will get you on the trolley.

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

IkeyPikey, I was a Red Cross volunteer back in the 50's and 60's and instructed teenagers in First Aid. As such I sent Red Cross related mail quite a bit, and if it had "Red Cross" written on the cover/card, and the red cross printed on it, it was automatically free of postage. This was in the Netherlands - I can not speak for the rest of Europe.

Peter

Petert4522: I will ass-u-me you are talking about the Netherlands chapter of the Red Cross, and that you posted the items with then-PostNL.

But the OP's piece is from/via the American Red Cross operating in France, taking mail from American soldiers, which they probably passed thru the American military postal facilities both for censor review, and because the American military would pay the American post office to carry this mail.

https://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RS22203.pdf ... from the Congressional Research Service

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_mail

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey