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The North Platte Canteen - Documentary, The Canteen Spirit
Date
Jan 24, 2004
Last Updated: Mar 10, 2014
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"The Canteen Spirit", "The Miracle of North Platte"
Bob Greene wrote a book "Once Upon a Town" about it, Public Television made a film about it. It is the story of the North Platte Canteen that served over six million service men and women during WWII, donating food, drinks, smiles and hugs. Using their gas rationed stamps to drive to the Canteen and their ration stamps to prepare food.
It is a great story of ordinary people doing extra ordinary deeds from December 1941 til April 1946.
No one who stopped there has ever forgotten. There were as many as 32 trains a day, every day, troops running into the depot - for just ten minutes.
The five service people to share their memories on the documentary are Vince Anderson, MARINES - Jean Cashier, Coast Guard - Mansel Johns, Army Engineers - Ray Merrell, MARINES - Anthony William, Army Air Corps - John Zgud, Army Air Corps. Also sharing memories were surviving Canteen workers. Ray gave one of the Canteen workers a Marine Raider and Sixth Division Patch for her jacket that hangs in the North Platte Canteen Museum.
The documentary is occasionally shown on PBS, can be requested to be shown or ordered from 1-800-6788 for $15.00.
