Walker, George                     White, Eddit
Wallis, Larry                         Wilson, Glen W.
Waymack, James L .             Zinn, Franklyn K.
Webb, William H                  Zunick, Joseph L.

of tax revenue was spent on the canteen. Unless you count the $5 that was sent by President Roosevelt," Zgud said. An estimated 50,000 volunteers from 125 communities served at the canteen. Most were farm wives and their children, although men too old to serve certainly contributed. Some came from 100 miles away or more to serve on their scheduled days, including some from Colorado. They describe how volunteers used their government-issued coupon books for sugar, cooking oil and other rationed items as canteen day approached. Every farm produced its own eggs, cream, chickens and port. They carefully packed the food in bushel baskets, covered the baskets with oilcloth and squeezed as many supplies and volunteers as possible in a car to drive to North Platte--gas was rationed, too. Today the Lincoln County Historical Museum and Village in North Platte features an extensive display of the canteen that includes historical photos, artifacts and thousands upon thousands of letters written by grateful military personnel.

May God help us have this kind of love and unselfishness towards those men and women that cross our pathway.

Chaplain Marvin Watson
3149 Sequoia Drive
Lincoln, NE  68516
(402) 421-8957
Marvwatson@juno.com

As we celebrate the freedom we have in this great Nation, because of the sacrifices of service Men and Women, let us also remember the sacrifices made by civilians. A country came together during World War II. The nation's industries switched from producing consumer products to Jeeps and planes, bombs and bullets seemingly while the smoke from Pearl Harbor hung on the horizon. From coast to coast, Americans made sacrifices large and small to assist the war effort. 

One great effort was the North Platte Canteen in North Platte, Nebraska. An earsplitting whistle expels steam into the air as another World War II troop train rolls into the Union Pacific depot. Young women, carrying egg baskets filled with doughnuts, apples, Lucky Strikes and chewing gum, stand on the platform. As hundreds of soldiers, airmen and sailors pour off the train, the women, wearing their best dresses, direct them to an open door of the depot. Inside the grand brick building, with its marble floors and massive windows, "Take the A Train" filters from a jukebox in back. Before them stretch long rows of whitecloth tables piled with fried chicken, ham salad sandwiches, hard boiled eggs, cookies, cakes, steaming coffee, cold milk and iced tea.

"They were lonesome," said Lorene Huebner, a 75 year old Hershey farm wife and former canteen volunteer, as she recalled all those young faces from six decades ago.  "And scared to death," added June Lindstrom of Sutherland, also 75 and also a former volunteer. No community anywhere pulled off anything as astounding as the North Platte Canteen.  "It was great..probably the greatest volunteer effort," said John Zgud, 80, of Cozad, a former gunner on a B-24 bomber and one of an estimated 6 million troops who stopped at the canteen.  "It was the mother of all volunteer efforts."

The canteen closed its doors NOT once from Christmas Day, 1941 to April 1, 1946. Each dawn to dusk, between 3,000 and 5,000 military personnel passed through the doors for homemade food, drink, cigarettes, chewing gum, candy and magazines. It was all FREE. And all of it was grown, cooked, baked, mixed, boiled and paid for by residents of one of the most sparsely populated states in the country. Organizers tallied the cost at $137,944.00 for the entire operation, between $1.2 million and $1.6 million in 2001 dollars. Not a single cent

Alqueeza, Crisanto
Anderson,Foster
Bagley, Donald V.
Bailey, Finley A.
Barber, George
Baxter, William
Becker Leon
Bruce, Marvin D.
Bullock, Charles S.
Burgess, Thomas R.
Burney, John L.
Burris, Richard E.
Callahan, Alvin
Chidester Doug
Childs, Cecil C.
Cobb, John V.
Conine, Bob
Cooksey, Robert B.
Covino, Frank
Crenshaw, Edwin L.
Cruz, Antonio R.
Dailey, Wilbur A.
Damron, J.S.
Davis, James
Dea , David M.
Dilley, Richard J.
Dixon, Thomas L.
Doherty, Harold E.
Dudley, Walter
Duerr, Joseph H.
Dyches, Archie
Dykas, Edward J.
Edwards, Thomas
Elder, Charles
Eshom, James M.
Esteban, Eduardo
Floyd, Brooks
Folks, Arlie Joe
Folks, Tracie F.
Fontenot, Royle
Foster, Freddie
Frank, Victor K.
Franzen, Leroy
French, Dean M.
Fritz, Michael
Gafton, Frank C.
Gamble, William
Gifford, Gilbert
Giovanetti, R. A.
Glover, Joseph R.
Gold, Boyd O.
Gooslin, Don C.
Gough, Terry G.
Gray, Amos
Greenhill, Edward
Hardy, George D.
Harrelson, Henry
Harrington, Richard L.
Havelin, Wayne
Heitz, Richard
Henderson, Thomas Jr.
Hestla, Charles W.
Hicks, Vernon
Holt, Dennis A.
Houghton, Donald W.
Howell, Larry T.
Huckaby, Fuller O.
Hulon, Jack
Irvin, Herbert E.
Isaac , Reuben E.
Jansen, Howard

Jennings, Samuel S.
Jepsen, Darrell
Johns, Elwood
Johnson, Dan
Johnson, Michael E.
Kadinger, Robert F.
Ketchers, Lloyd R
Klemm, Floyd P.
Kodesch, Charles
Kvidera, Larry
Ladner, Winston
Landon, Neal F.
Lanpkin, Gerald T.
Lattiner, George
Ledbetter, Robert L.
Lewis, Ernest D.
Lohmann, Gayle A.
Lund, Larry Thomas
Macayan, Florentin
MacDonald, Paul J.
Maceri, Angelo
Machen, Elton
McCracken, Harry
McDouguald, Robert L.
McFadden, William
McMahon, Walter S.
Milligan, Detester
Morrison, Joe
Murphy, Calvan H.
Murray ,James L.
Nelson, Larry A.
Newell, Darrel K.
Nolte, Lester
Olaveson, James L.
Osotio, Ricardo T.
Otoole, Edward M.
Pankonien, William
Peerson, Jack
Pinzon, Alfredo
Poisson, Conrad
Porteous , Joseph A 
Powers, Reginald
Proulx, Ronald
Puckett, Nathan
Rein, Randall W.
Richardson, Raymond
Rigdon, Charles
Rudd, Malcolm T.
Ryan, Randall M.
Ryder, William H.
Sanders, Morgan G.
Sandoval, Edward M.
Saap, William C.
Schaaf, Donald T.
Scholly, Victor
Siciliano, Louis
Sitton, David
Smith, Jay
Smith, Richard L.
Spruance, Edward
Starke, Martin
Staubs, Jr., William
Stewart, Jack
Tahamont, David
Taylor, John C.
Terrell, Alex
Thomas, Albert E.
Thome, Christian R.
Tibbets, Joe
Trigg, George
Tucker, Milton J.

Thank you to those who have contributed to the Website. David reports there were 13,600 hits at the site in May and 8,600 in April. We ask that if anyone is able to give a one-time donation to offset the costs of the website, it would be appreciated. Any donations should be to USS Whetstone Association, 6200 Emerald Pines Cir, Ft. Myers, FL  33912.

1951-54 SN     Joe Kirby
1951-54 RD2   Bob Hager
1954-57 MM3  J C Meismer
1954-58 MM1  George Walker (Dec'd)
1955-57 RM     Kenneth Buchanan
1955-58 MM2  J. W. Conover
1957-61 PN2    Jerry Dinda
1958-61 GM3   Burley Mitchell
1960-61 BT2    Hector R. Junco
1960-64 MM2   Charlie Keen
1961-64 MM2   Larry Stene
1963-66 BT       Marion Goble
1967-70 LTJG  James C. Dunn
1967-70 YN3   Everett Ward

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