By CONNIE ZIEGLER / Contributing editor
The United States declared war on Japan on Dec. 8, 1941, the day after Japanese forces attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. On Dec. 11, 1941, the U.S. also declared war on Germany and Italy. Only 12 days later, on Dec. 23, 1941, the Service Men’s Club of Indianapolis declared the opening of the city’s first canteen, in Union Station, for service members “in transit” through the city, as reported in The Indianapolis Star on Christmas Eve that year.
If you, like me, think that a canteen was a place for drinking, dancing and romancing, just like in all those old movies about World War II, you may be disappointed to learn that the canteen at Union Station was not that. While there were drinks aplenty, of the non-alcoholic variety, the canteen’s primary purpose was to feed servicemen and women a good meal free of charge and provide a nice place for them to relax while they waited for their transportation to camp or to the next staging area before leaving for war.
The etymological root of the word “canteen” may come from the Italian “cantina,” which means a wine cellar or vault, or a side, corner or angle. The latter part of the derivation is evocative of the space that became the canteen and club room at Union Station. There the Service Men’s Club and a host of volunteers converted what had been a “dark storage room” in a corner into a “colorful, cheery place,” decked out in red, white and blue.
Mrs. Robert A. Adams chaired the furnishings committee, according to The Star article on Dec. 24, 1941. She managed the purchase and installation of several groups of cozy chairs, writing and card tables, plenty of reading lights, and even table tennis. The place was completed in a week.
Several hundred Indianapolis women volunteered to staff the canteen and club room under managers called “Colonels.” There were committees for hostessing, food, office force and motor corps. To ensure that there would be no shenanigans in Indianapolis of the sort that Hollywood movies would later portray, eligible women volunteers could not be under 25. To ensure that they could donate long hours on their feet while remaining cheerful, they could not be over 49.
On Jan. 1, 1942, the Union Station canteen and club became affiliated with the United Service Organization – the USO – which was established by Congress (but privately funded) to provide entertainment and services to the troops.
There were other canteens in the city, also. In December 1942, women from the Indiana Federation of Clubs donated a mobile canteen unit to the Red Cross for use at Stout Field. Gov. Henry F. Schricker spoke at the dedication of the mobile unit, saying that, “In their homes, in their communities and in national service, the women of Indiana, like the women of America, are giving an outstanding contribution to the winning of the war,” according to an Indianapolis News article from the Dec. 6, 1942 dedication. The red-lipsticked Red Cross women shown in the photo accompanying The News article volunteered to staff the mobile canteen on its dedication day, serving coffee and doughnuts to members of the Army, Navy, Marines and to Lieutenants Gertrude Pratt and Charlotte Schumann of the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAACS).
In 1941 the National Women’s Service League opened a temporary canteen in the basement of the Federal Building on Ohio Street. That canteen was still running in September 1942 when The News published an article about it. The photo with the article showed Service League member Mrs. A. R. Coffin and Emerson Grove Garden Club members Helen Alexander and Gladys Hemphill, frequent volunteers, constructing sandwiches.
In November 1943, The News reported that members of the Boys Club of Indianapolis were running errands, collecting scrap and doing odd jobs to raise money toward a mobile canteen to send overseas. More than 75,000 Boys Club members were serving in the Armed Forces by then. The canteen fundraising was part of a national effort by Boys Clubs, whose members had already raised enough money in 1942 to donate a jeep to the army on the first anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day.
By 1944, a group of men called the War Dads began service at the Union Station canteen. They manned it from 11 p.m. to 3 a.m. to ensure that no son would leave the city with an empty stomach or without a warm sendoff. By then, The Star reported that more than 400 volunteers were putting more than 4,000 hours a month into keeping the canteen open 24 hours a day. The canteen director, Mrs. E.C. Atkins, who, like most of the women who were keeping these volunteer efforts alive, was mentioned only by her husband’s name in the newspaper, said that an average of 1,000 servicemen visited the canteen daily.
The war dragged on and the men and women continued to receive meals and coffee and caring as they moved through the city. In May 1944, the Union Station canteen served its one millionth customer. Signalman Second Class Leo Francis Fischer was returning home from his second year of service when he stopped in for a free meal as the hand tabulator clicked over to one million. He received a hearty thank-you for his service and a war bond from a USO director. Signalman Fischer was quoted in The News: “I just landed at an East Coast town Friday. I got a train and beat it to Indiana right away to see my wife and my baby. Boy, am I glad. Seems like I just been on one big, long taxi ride for two years – Ireland, England, Sicily, Africa, France during the invasion [D-Day], and a few other places. I gotta go now as I only have four days to do a lot of things in.”
After Allied victories in Europe and Japan, the Union Station canteen and all the other canteens in the city were preparing to close in March 1946. By then, the book, Indiana in the War, (1951) reported that the Union Station canteen kitchen, counter and lounge, open 24 hours a day, peopled by 1,334 volunteers who contributed 207,247 hours of duty, had served 1,884,107 service members. The War Service Committee of the Indianapolis Council of Church Women had baked all the pies and cakes provided. Mrs. Joseph Stout had planned all the meals. The Bakery Workers Union had donated all the bread. The William H. Block company had prepared all the food, free of charge, in their kitchens. No one received a salary. n
Connie Zeigler holds a master’s degree in history. She enjoys digging up a surprising, forgotten story and sharing her pirate’s booty with Urban Times readers.
