Once Upon a Town : The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen

As a resident of North Platte, I appreciate the salute to the history and women who made the World War II Canteen possible. They met every troop train that came through North Platte, NE, the entire war. It is a great read, but an even better story. Bob Greene wrote an amazing story, amazing well!

In search of the best America there ever was, bestselling author and award-winning journalist Bob Greene finds it in a small Nebraska town few people pass through today—a town where Greene discovers the echoes of the most touching love story imaginable: a love story between a country and its sons.

During World War II, American soldiers from every city and walk of life rolled through North Platte, Nebraska, on troop trains en route to their ultimate destinations in Europe and the Pacific. The tiny town, wanting to offer the servicemen warmth and support, transformed its modest railroad depot into the North Platte Canteen.

Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen—staffed and funded entirely by local volunteers—was open from five a.m. until the last troop train of the day pulled away after midnight. Astonishingly, this remote plains community of only 12,000 people provided welcoming words, friendship, and baskets of food and treats to more than six million GIs by the time the war ended.

In this poignant and heartwarming eyewitness history, based on interviews with North Platte residents and the soldiers who once passed through, Bob Greene tells a classic, lost-in-the-mists-of-time American story of a grateful country honoring its brave and dedicated sons.

Rocky Mountain News

More than 6 million soldiers passed through then, nearly 8, 000 a day toward the end of the war.

The author of the New York Times bestseller Duty shows how a small town in Nebraska gave meaning, joy, and hope to every train of World War Two soldiers passing through their town. The town came to symbolise the patriotism of the American people during World War Two.North Platte, Nebraska, is alone on the plains in the middle of the country. But before the air age, the Union Pacific Railroad's main line ran right through town. When World War Two began, the trains transported young soldiers across the continent to both coasts on their way to battle. Then a local resident had an idea: why not meet the trains coming through, offer the servicemen and servicewomen some warmth and support? On Christmas Day, 1941, the first train rolled in and the surprised soldiers on board were greeted with welcoming words and baskets of treats.What happened in the years that followed was a miracle. The railroad depot was transformed into the North Platte Canteen. Every day of the year, every day of the war, the Canteen was open from 5 a.m. until the last troop train pulled away after midnight, staffed and funded entirely by private volunteers, to serve thousands of military personnel daily. "On Interstate 80, three or four hours into the long westward drive across Nebraska, with the sun hovering mercilessly in the midsummer sky on a cloudless and broiling July afternoon, there were moments when I thought there was no way I'd ever find what I h" The tale of American soldiers and the tiny town of North Platte, Nebraska, which welcomed these soldiers at their canteen Title from ebook title screen (viewed on June 1, 2006).