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The 10th Mountain Division (TSG) in conjunction with our Host, the Illinois Railway Museum in Union Illinois will attempt to recreate this phenomenon of the American Home Front on October 3, 2009 at the Museum. Three restored period Pullman cars will be available for the ride to and from the station at "North Platte, Nebraska", now magically moved to Illinois. We are in need of Platform Girls, Donut Dollies, Matrons, Rail workers, and Civilians of all sorts to add to the arrival of the troop trains at the station. We need soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen in class A and B uniforms to ride the train and take part in the program. Anyone wishing to take part in the program,

please email me at WW2medic@skitrooper.org. We also need SPONSORS to help provide the pastry, coffee, apples, pies & cakes, reading material, etc for the troops! We need sign painters, conductors, and civilians to also ride the trains and interact with the general public....If you can contribute, please let us know......Music would also be a plus so if you can play an instrument or are part of a period band, we can use you! Antique period civilian vehicles are also welcome. If you wish to volunteer to help hang bunting or assist in set up, please contact me.

Thanks for your interest in this iconic bit of American History....we hope to see you at Union. Information for registration can be found at www.anzioexpress.org

"Wars are not about killing, and wars are not about dying. Wars are about love. That's what you remember. All the other stuff is incidental. The people you depend on, the people you came to love......."

Ten days after Pearl Harbor, North Platte residents heard Company D, Nebraska National Guard, was coming through on a troop train. About 500 residents waited at the station with cookies, candy, cakes and cigarettes. When the train arrived they learned the troops were from Kansas, not Nebraska. Residents treated them anyway and Rae Wilson, daughter of a Union Pacific carpenter, then championed the idea for a canteen for all troop trains.

Volunteers met their first train on Christmas Day, 1941. Initially they prepared their food at a nearby hotel and stored their treats in a shed near the depot. Wilson approached Union Pacific President William M. Jeffers, a North Platte native, about using the vacant lunchroom in the Union Pacific depot. Jeffers quickly approved the idea and workers moved into the lunchroom by January 1, 1942.

North Platte was a natural location for the canteen because all the trains had to stop to service the steam locomotives, giving the troops a 10-minute chance to rush inside and help themselves to free food and coffee. About 8,000 military personnel were served daily.

The canteen served about 8 million servicemen and women before it was closed on April 1, 1946.

In March 1945 alone they served:

40,161 homemade cookies
30,679 hard-boiled eggs
6,547 donuts
6,939 cakes

Everything was free. There were NO funds provided by the US Government to the Canteen. Much of the food came from local farms. Magazines, cigarettes and writing materials also were distributed. A canteen tradition was to give any serviceman a cake who said it was his birthday. An average of 20 cakes were given away daily, with up to 600 given away each month. The generosity was a remarkable achievement during wartime rationing.

Volunteers came from 125 surrounding communities. It was estimated about 50,000 people volunteered at some time during the war. Like other North Platte organizations, UP roundhouse and shop workers volunteered a workday at the center.

When Rae Wilson left North Platte in March 1942, Helen Christ, wife of an UP conductor was appointed general chairman, a post she held for the duration.

Union Pacific provided the canteen with heat, water, cups, napkins and a dishwashing machine as well as UP employees to do janitorial duties. The railroad public relations department publicized the canteen and thousands of postcards and brochures were given to service personnel.