The North Platte Canteen, WWII
Col. Jaskolski, a veteran of the Iraq war, is commander of the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade of the Arkansas Army National Guard. For three weeks earlier this summer, the 142nd had been conducting an emergency deployment readiness exercise in Wyoming, training and sleeping outdoors, subsisting on field rations. Now it was time for the 700 soldiers to return to their base.
A charter bus company had been hired for the 18-hour drive back to Arkansas. The Army had budgeted for a stop to get snacks. The bus company determined that the soldiers would reach North Platte, in western Nebraska, around the time they would likely be hungry. The company placed a call to the visitors’ bureau: Was there anywhere in town that could handle a succession of 21 buses, and get 700 soldiers in and out for a quick snack?
The North Platte Canteen, 2018
The townspeople made those 10 minutes count. Starting in December 1941, they met every train: up to 23 a day, beginning at 5 a.m. and ending after midnight. Those volunteers greeted between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers a day. They presented them with sandwiches and gifts, played music for them, danced with them, baked birthday cakes for them. Every day of the year, every day of the war, they were there at the depot. They never missed a train, never missed a soldier. They fed six million soldiers by the end of the war. Not 1 cent of government money was asked for or spent, save for a $5 bill sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
and this,
Although railroad security was tight and the schedules of the soldier trains were kept secret, the head canteen organizers were given alerts of incoming trains so the volunteers would have enough time to get there and prepare for the troops. The woman in charge would put out a coded call – “I have the coffee on” – to let the others know that it was time to jump into action. Not that there was ever much time between trains; as many as 24 passed through North Platte every day. Some days the volunteers served thousands of soldiers. They performed acts of kindness like giving out cakes on soldiers’ birthdays and singing “Happy Birthday” to them. For soldiers in medical cars who were unable to leave the train, girls went in with baskets of treats and distributed them up and down the aisles. For those soldiers who were able to get off of the train but couldn’t make it inside, women stood on the platform to distribute items. Every one of the soldiers was treated like family, and volunteers saw to it that not a single train was missed. No soldier was ever charged a single cent for the items they received in North Platte.
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