[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 8]
[House]
[Pages 10649-10650]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         SUPPORTING THE TROOPS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Nebraska (Mr. Osborne) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OSBORNE. Mr. Speaker, along with nearly all Americans, I felt a 
great sense of pride at the competence and skill displayed by our 
military in Afghanistan and Iraq. It was extremely gratifying to see 
nearly all Americans united behind our troops. Even though all did not 
agree with the idea behind the war, at least they supported the troops.
  Over the last several months, a number of communities in my district 
provided meals for military personnel being transported across 
Nebraska. That is not a big deal, but this spirit of support was really 
a rebirth of a project called the North Platte Canteen. The North 
Platte Canteen's history is as follows: just 10 days after the Japanese 
bombed Pearl Harbor, North Platte, Nebraska, residents learned that on 
December 17, 1941, Company D, Nebraska National Guard troops, were 
scheduled to travel through North Platte aboard a military train. 
According to sources, that train could possibly make a stop in North 
Platte on its way to the west coast. So nobody knew because of secrecy 
whether they were coming or not.
  Because of the secrecy, it was unknown when the train would actually 
stop in North Platte, but hundreds of family members from the area came 
out with food, Christmas gifts, and baskets of fruit to celebrate the 
troop train's arrival. When the train finally arrived, the Nebraska 
troops were not aboard. Instead, it was Company D, the Kansas National 
Guard troops who were heading west.
  The crowd was disappointed but rallied around the Kansas troops, gave 
them the gifts and food that they had prepared for the Nebraska 
National Guard and sent them on their way. The very next day, Rae 
Wilson of North Platte contacted the local newspaper to suggest that 
the community open a local canteen to meet the troop trains traveling 
in either direction across the United States. With this humble 
suggestion, the North Platte Canteen was born.
  The North Platte Canteen met every troop train that stopped in North 
Platte from Christmas Day, 1941, to April 1, 1946, 5 years. While the 
volunteers never knew when the trains would be coming through because 
of national security, they were always there to serve the military 
personnel going off to war.
  The canteen served approximately 6 million members of the Armed 
Forces at the North Platte Canteen in the Union Pacific Railroad 
station in North Platte. So that really constituted probably three-
fourths to 80 percent of the total military personnel in the United 
States Army at that time.
  There were approximately 55,000 volunteers from nearly 125 
communities who helped to feed the troops that traveled through North 
Platte. It is estimated that 23 trains a day traveled through the 
community carrying between 2,000 and 5,000 troops each day. It is also 
estimated that the troops each month consumed 40,000 cookies, 30,000 
hard-boiled eggs, 6,500 doughnuts, 4,000 loaves of bread, 3,000 pounds 
of meat, 450 pounds of butter, 1,350 pounds of coffee, 1,200 quarts of 
ice cream and on and on and on. And this was done at a time when 
gasoline and food items were rationed. The majority of the items were 
donated to the effort, as the North Platte Canteen did not receive any 
Federal or any government assistance of any kind.
  Individual volunteers also helped to get cards, letters, and phone 
calls to family and friends of the service personnel when they stopped 
in North Platte. The volunteers wrote the notes and made the phone 
calls to loved ones to let them know that the soldier that they were 
interested in was doing well.
  This week I introduced a resolution honoring the outstanding efforts 
of the individuals and communities involved with the North Platte 
Canteen in North Platte, Nebraska, during World

[[Page 10650]]

War II. This is, I think, an example of the spirit of cooperation that 
we currently see across our country for our troops; and it just shows 
what can be done when partisanship is set aside, when everyone is 
united in one purpose. And these people, members of our greatest 
generation, are now disappearing very quickly. So I think it is 
important that we recognize their contribution at this time because 
many of them in 2 years, 5 years, 10 years from now will not be around. 
So their extraordinary act of generosity and service to the country, I 
believe, needs to be recognized; and I urge support of this resolution.

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