On Senate Floor, Fischer Highlights Bill to Award North Platte Canteen Volunteers, Communities with Congressional Gold Medal

Press Release

U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-Neb.) delivered a floor speech highlighting the story of the North Platte Canteen -- a railroad stop in North Platte, Nebraska that was recognized during World War II for providing hospitality to soldiers travelling through the area. An estimated 55,000 people from 125 communities -- throughout Nebraska, Colorado, and Kansas contributed food, money, or time to serve the Canteen's estimated 6 million visitors.

Earlier this month, Sen. Fischer introduced legislation to award the Congressional Gold Medal to the collective individuals and communities who volunteered or donated food and other items to the North Platte Canteen.

Click the image above to watch video of Sen. Fischer's speech

A full copy of Sen. Fischer's remarks as prepared for delivery is below:

"M. President, I'd like to tell you a story about North Platte, Nebraska.

During World War II, this small, West Central Nebraska town was one of the most famous cities in America -- and it was the epitome of home-front patriotism.

From Christmas Day 1941 to April 1946, North Platte was the site of one of the many community-based canteens that offered hospitality to soldiers on their way to join the fight or on their way back home.

There were nearly 120 of these canteens across the United States, mostly along railways, like the Union Pacific line that still runs through Nebraska.

Of those 120 canteens, North Platte was by far the biggest.

It served more than six million service members over the four-and-a-half years it was open.

The country's second-busiest canteen, in Ohio, served well under half that many soldiers over its lifetime.

As many as 24 different troop trains, carrying up to 8,000 uniformed personnel overall, rolled through North Platte on any given day.

Here's a quote from a local newspaper about what the residents of just two Nebraska towns, Merna and Anselmo, donated to the North Platte Canteen on a single day in 1944:

53 birthday cakes, 127 fried chickens, 58 dozen homemade cookies, 32 dozen cupcakes, 73 pounds of coffee, 163 dozen eggs, 68 dozen donuts, 41 quarts of pickles, 3 crates of oranges, 9 pounds of ham, 160 loaves of bread, 40 popcorn balls, and 50 pounds of sandwich meat.

It took 22 cars and 3 pick-ups to drive all those donations 70 miles west to the train station in North Platte.

Members of the community organized regular benefit dances, scrap metal drives, and other events to support the Canteen's operations.

In all, volunteers raised more than $137,000, worth more than two million dollars today, to support the Canteen -- and they did it all on their own.

As you might imagine, the soldiers who were fortunate enough to stop at the North Platte Canteen didn't soon forget the hospitality they received.

Russ Fay, a Wisconsinite who was barely old enough to be drafted when he was shipped off to basic training in California, was one of those lucky soldiers.

More than 60 years after his 10-minute stop in North Platte, he told the journalist Bob Greene, who wrote a book about the North Platte Canteen called Once Upon a Town,

"I can still taste it. I would say that a majority of the men on the battlefields knew exactly what North Platte was ... They would talk about it like it was a dream. Out of nowhere, [other soldiers would say]: "How'd you like to have some of that food from the North Platte Canteen right about now?'

M. President, the thought of the North Platte Canteen kept our soldiers going during one of the darkest periods in world history.

And more than 55,000 people -- nearly all of them women -- from 125 different communities chipped in to help run it at one point or another.

Most were Nebraskans, but many were from our neighboring states of Colorado and Kansas.

One of those Nebraska women was my mother, Florence Strobel.

She moved from Lincoln to teach kindergarten in North Platte in the fall of 1944, and she was proud to be among the volunteers at the Canteen.

To honor everyone who helped give our soldiers a good memory to hold onto while they were away from home, I recently introduced the North Platte Canteen Congressional Gold Medal Act.

This bill would award a collective Congressional Gold Medal to all of the individuals and communities who volunteered or donated food and other items to the North Platte Canteen.

This is the highest honor Congress can give civilians -- and the tens of thousands of people who made America's busiest World War II canteen a success are certainly deserving of it.

Under my bill, after the Treasury Department strikes this Congressional Gold Medal, it would be on display at the Lincoln County Historical Museum in North Platte, which has an outstanding exhibit about the Canteen.

This wouldn't be the first time Congress has given the volunteers at the North Platte Canteen the recognition they deserve.

Almost 20 years ago now, the 108th Congress acknowledged their efforts with a resolution introduced by Nebraska Representative Tom Osborne.

I hope the 117th Congress will do so as well by passing this bill.

Thank you. I yield the floor."

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