What Is The North Platte Canteen?
In the frenzy that followed the attack on Pearl Harbor a rumor spread throughout North Platte, Nebraska, that members of the Nebraska National Guard would be passing through town on their way to the West Coast and to the War. With spontaneous patriotism, hundreds of local citizens congregated at the depot on December 17, 1941 to greet the soldiers with food, coffee, and cigarettes.
When the train arrived, the crowd was surprised and somewhat disappointed to find that it contained troops from Kansas, not Nebraska. But disappointment could not overpower the desire of those assembled to help, and permission was obtained to distribute the materials that were collected to the appreciative troops.
Among the hundreds of people that showed up to greet the soldiers was a young woman named Rae Wilson. She was struck with the effect that the towns greeting had on the soldiers. In the letter to the editor of the North Platte Telegraph, she suggested that the community continue meeting the trains to give the young men and women on their way to War one last taste of home.
People in three states took up Rae Wilson’s challenge. For better than four years, day in and day out over 50,000 people contributed time, food, money, and effort in one of the proudest moments of the civilian history of the second World War.
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