Introduction
The most widely published photograph of the North Platte Canteen, by Union Pacific Railroad photographer Bill Coons, was taken on a late summer's afternoon during World War II. A horde of hungry servicemen descend on the canteen from an eastbound troop train while others pause to visit with some of the canteen's platform workers. The canteen partly gained its reputation from sheer statistics, with an average of 3,000 to 5,000 military personnel being served daily. Toward the war’s end, the daily total went as high as 8,000 personnel from 23 trains. One reported record was that the canteen once served about 2,000 soldiers from four troop trains within a 30-minute period. Those who were among these numbers would do their part in spreading word of the canteen around the globe.
Just ten days after Pearl Harbor, North Platte, Nebraska, residents learned “through the grapevine” that their own Company D, Nebraska National Guard, which had been in training at Camp Robinson, Ark., was going to pass through the city by troop train en route to the West Coast. Family members and friends hurried to the Union Pacific Railroad station, where eventually about 500 residents waited with cookies, candy, cakes and cigarettes. Among them was Rae Wilson, whose brother commanded the local company.After a long wait, a troop train rumbled into the station. Excitedly the crowd surged forward. Then came sharp disappointment, for the boys on board were Company D alright, but a Kansas - not Nebraska - National Guard unit.
Disappointed yes, but someone in the crowd said, “Well, what are we waiting for? Welcome to our city sons, and here's a little something for you.” They then passed out to these boys the gifts they had arranged for their own.
This gave Rae Wilson an idea. Why not meet all the trains carrying servicemen and women? She contacted businessmen, housewives, railroaders and everyone who would help. On Christmas Day 1941, a troop train rolled into the city and the men on board found, to their surprise, smiling young ladies with baskets of treats.
Thus was born the North Platte Canteen.
Back in pre-war days, transcontinental travelers - if they remembered North Platte at all - thought of it as “the place where the time changes,” a way station on the prairies where they set their watches from Central to Mountain time.
But after December 1941, the name and fame of North Platte traveled all over the world, wherever men and women in the U.S. armed forces were stationed. Every day from 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers, sailors and marines visited the North Platte Canteen in the Union Pacific station. During a ten-minute stop, they were supplied with coffee, sandwiches and cigarettes, given a handful of current magazines and sent on their way, warmed not only by the hot coffee but by the smiles and friendly greetings of the busy canteen workers.
There wasn't much time for more than a hasty “thank you” as the men gulped down the last bite of cake and dashed for the waiting train. But the stacks of mail received at the canteen were eloquent evidence of their gratitude. As one boy wrote, “North Platte is an oasis a soldier won't forget. Don't take my word for it - just watch their faces light up when they come into the canteen.”
Among the servicemen’s centers throughout the country during World War II, the canteen at North Platte held a unique place in the soldiers’ affections. One distinction was its lack of discrimination in rank. Unlike many such centers, open only to enlisted men, the North Platte center welcomed any man or woman in uniform on the premise that bars and oak leaves were not amulets against hunger.
The following pages can only attempt to highlight what still persists as one of the most endearing examples of gratitude expressed toward those who have served in America's defense.
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