A bit dusty here. Yes, this is the America I know and love.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/a...th-platte-1532289711

A Soldier Never Forgets North Platte

When service members pass through this small town in Nebraska, the community comes together to thank them.



‘We were overwhelmed,” said Lt. Col. Nick Jaskolski. “I don’t really have words to describe how surprised and moved we all were. I had never even heard of the town before.”

Col. Jaskolski, a veteran of the Iraq war, is commander of the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade of the Arkansas Army National Guard. For three weeks earlier this summer, the 142nd had been conducting an emergency deployment readiness exercise in Wyoming, training and sleeping outdoors, subsisting on field rations. Now it was time for the 700 soldiers to return to their base.

A charter bus company had been hired for the 18-hour drive back to Arkansas. The Army had budgeted for a stop to get snacks. The bus company determined that the soldiers would reach North Platte, in western Nebraska, around the time they would likely be hungry. The company placed a call to the visitors’ bureau: Was there anywhere in town that could handle a succession of 21 buses, and get 700 soldiers in and out for a quick snack?

North Platte said yes. North Platte has always said yes.



During World War II, North Platte was a geographically isolated town of 12,000. Soldiers, sailors and aviators on their way to fight the war rode troop trains across the nation, bound for Europe via the East Coast or the Pacific via the West Coast. The Union Pacific Railroad trains that transported the soldiers always made 10-minute stops in North Platte to take on water.

The townspeople made those 10 minutes count. Starting in December 1941, they met every train: up to 23 a day, beginning at 5 a.m. and ending after midnight. Those volunteers greeted between 3,000 and 5,000 soldiers a day. They presented them with sandwiches and gifts, played music for them, danced with them, baked birthday cakes for them. Every day of the year, every day of the war, they were there at the depot. They never missed a train, never missed a soldier. They fed six million soldiers by the end of the war. Not 1 cent of government money was asked for or spent, save for a $5 bill sent by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

The soldiers never forgot the kindness. Most of them, and most of the townspeople who greeted them, are dead. And now, in 2018, those 21 busloads from the 142nd Field Artillery were on their way, expecting to stop at some fast-food joint.



“We couldn’t believe what we saw when we pulled up,” Col. Jaskolski said. As each bus arrived over a two-day period, the soldiers stepped out to be greeted by lines of cheering people holding signs of thanks. They weren’t at a fast-food restaurant: They were at North Platte’s events center, which had been opened and decorated especially for them.

“People just started calling our office when they heard the soldiers were on their way,” said Lisa Burke, the director of the visitors’ bureau. “Hundreds of people, who wanted to help.”

The soldiers entered the events center to the aroma of steaks grilling and the sound of recorded music: current songs by Luke Bryan, Justin Timberlake, Florida Georgia Line; World War II songs by Glenn Miller, the Andrews Sisters, Jimmy Dorsey. They were served steak sandwiches, ham sandwiches, turkey sandwiches, deviled eggs, salads and fruit; local church groups baked pies, brownies and cookies.

Mayor Dwight Livingston stood at the door for two days and shook every soldier’s hand. Mr. Livingston served in the Air Force in Vietnam and came home to no words of thanks. Now, he said, as he shook the hands and welcomed the soldiers, “I don’t know whether those moments were more important for them, or for me. I knew I had to be there.”

“It was one soldier’s 21st birthday,” Lisa Burke said. “When I gave him his cake, he told me it was the first birthday cake he’d ever had in his life.” Not wanting to pry, she didn’t ask him how that could possibly be. “I was able to hold my emotions together,” she said. “Until later.”

When it became time to settle up—the Army, after all, had that money budgeted for snacks—the 142nd Field Artillery was told: Nope. You’re not spending a penny here. This is on us.

This is on North Platte.
__________

More photos:
https://www.nptelegraph.com/fo...19-2f3ea2df0bf0.html

Yep, that’s the America I want! Way to go North Platte!

You sure made my day, Bamajeepster. Thank you.

CSB and could you please pass me a kleenex?

North Platte is our lunch stop whenever we are traveling to visit my family in Nebraska.
My wife and I have actually talked about retiring there in 20 years.

Made my day too

This is my America

Land of the free, home of the brave

Very cool! I was just through North Platte a couple of weeks ago. Nice town.

Well done North Platte, well done!
Can you see this happening in San Fran, Berkley, or NYC? In a place like Nebraska, where real people live, this is possible.
Rod

yeah, that tissue box is around here somewhere

When the wife and I drive back to Kansas City we stay in North Platte. Very fine people live there. I am not surprised at all by this generous act.

Kudos to North Platte! Great story.

Nebraska is one of my favorite states to drive through. South Dakota and Kansas, New Mexico and Montana ... love'em all but do have my favorites.

My wife's family is from Lexington which is about 60 miles to the east.

I will tell you all of Nebraska is like this.

Kudos to N. Platte!

Read about North Platte in Flag of Our Fathers'. Believe I needed a tissue then too. Thanks Bama, made my day. You know there still is villages like that all through America. They don't get the attention and don't need it. Let the Dims keep flying over em and discounting them.

I gotta read this one of these days.

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

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.

https://www.amazon.com/Once-Up...north+platte+canteen

Fantastic story.

I really got some dust in my eyes on this one....thanx

Thank you North Platte, you are a class act!

I've been thru Nebraska several times. Riding a motorcycle across the state or while attending a BMW motorcycle rally in Franklin. (August)

Very friendly folks there. Non stop food servings at the BMW rally. No more ears of corn for me, I plead. They said OK, now have some beef stew.

I wish the rest of America was as friendly as the folks in Nebraska.

Screen getting blurry. Damn allergies. God Bless North Platte