Unwavering Support: Helping Soldiers in All Situations

Do you think many small towns ever host six million visitors in four years?

Sixteen million Americans served in World War II. Many took troop trains to the West Coast en route to the Pacific Theater. Others rode to the East Coast on their way to Europe. Most also took the trains home at the end of their service.

Six million American soldiers stopped at the railroad depot in North Platte, Nebraska, population 12,000. The people of North Platte decided to serve those who served them. For more than 1,000 consecutive days, from 5 a.m. until midnight, volunteer staff and funds poured in to what became known as The Canteen.

Trains stopped all day long, and the townsfolk offered the soldiers everything from food to notes, cigarettes to kisses. They refused to let the monotonous schedule become stale. They knew every train brought new faces to town – some scared, some tired, some eager – all going toward danger and away from home. It was North Platte’s way of supporting the war effort above and beyond.

Blessings are hard to forget. These troops wrote letters to North Platte from overseas. They went back to visit. And decades later, Bob Greene found enough of them to write a book called Once Upon a Town: The Miracle of the North Platte Canteen.

Opportunities to support American service members continued after World War II. Group efforts can go a long way toward encouraging, honoring, and protecting veterans in countless situations.

Consider Robert Freniere, a retired Air Force colonel, whose family military heritage dates back to World War I. After spending 30 years in the Armed Forces, he has been looking for a job and living in his vehicle. Last year, the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote an article about his plight.

Mr. Freniere is divorced, but he has two sons, multiple degrees, and a lot of experience. He told the Inquirer he was in the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. He specialized in intelligence and earned respect from his senior officers. In 2006 he retired after having back surgery and draws a yearly pension of $40,000.

He has held two jobs over the last two years, but he quit the second job to live closer to his sons. Since then he has been applying for jobs on public library computers. He spends nights at motels, at friends’ houses, or in his van. “You start getting hopeless” after job searching day after day, he explains. But he adds, “I’m a military guy. I’m mission-oriented. You don’t give up.”

Mr. Freniere is not alone. According to the Department of Veteran Affairs, 50,000 veterans were homeless as of January 2014. And according to the Department of Labor, 191,000 veterans from the post-9/11 era were out of work as of December 2014, making their unemployment rate about 30 percent higher than the national average at the time.

But Mr. Freniere’s story may change. The Inquirer wrote a second report about him a week later. He had received two dozen offers of help per day all week. Civilians and veterans from Alaska to Philadelphia offered jobs, housing, and even tax assistance. He promised to reply to each one and thanked those who reached out to him and other veterans: “God bless you…It means a lot.”

Please pray for U.S. military personnel and veterans on a regular basis. Pray that they serve their country with honor, at home and abroad. Ask God to protect them and their families and to bring many of them to repentance and faith. Pray that He would provide jobs and homes for those who need it, while guarding them against temptation. Finally, consider whether God might use you in ministering to service members in your community or state.

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(Originally published by The Presidential Prayer Team.)