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<\/p>\nGuest Post from Terri Wangard:<\/strong><\/p>\n For the third book of my World War II series, I needed something to involve my main character with. At first I considered the train canteens, where volunteers laden with food met troop trains crisscrossing the country. That wouldn\u2019t work though, because my navigator was heading overseas and I didn\u2019t want a correspondence relationship. Besides, someone else had already written a novel about the canteens. Then I discovered the Red Cross clubmobiles.<\/p>\n The American Red Cross operated canteens on the home front and clubs and clubmobiles overseas during World War II to provide soldiers and sailors with a cup of coffee, a doughnut, and a bit of friendly conversation that gave the men a familiar connection with home.<\/p>\n Around the world, the Red Cross staffed permanent service clubs, traveling clubmobiles, and other recreational facilities. Service clubs provided refreshments, accommodations, and comfort and recreational activities wherever American troops were located overseas. In major cities, they offered meals, recreational activities, overnight accommodations, and barbershops and laundries. Some also provided sightseeing opportunities, touring museums, castles and cathedrals, and attending local theaters and movie houses.<\/p>\n Smaller clubs provided food in outlying areas near American military camps. The Red Cross also operated rest homes, often in stately manor houses in rural, tranquil locations overseas, for service personnel needing respite from the pressures of war.<\/p>\n To serve military sites in isolated areas, the Red Cross used clubmobiles in Great Britain in 1942 and later, the continent. Staffed by three American Red Cross women and a local driver in England, they visited several sites in a day, bringing refreshments, entertainment, and a touch of home to the troops in a foreign land. They used converted half-ton trucks and single-deck London buses, which featured kitchen equipment for making and serving doughnuts and coffee. Some carried phonographs and loudspeakers to provide music for the troops, and the women often danced with the servicemen. On the continent, the women had to drive and service their trucks.<\/p>\n Many American servicemen had never traveled far from home. At Red Cross clubs and clubmobiles in far-flung places around the globe, they received a connection to home and civilian life through friendly American women and familiar food. The Red Cross served a basic purpose of raising morale.<\/p>\n Carol Doucet of Soar Like Eagles<\/em> was proud to be a Red Cross Doughnut Girl.<\/p>\n BLOG STOPS: December 8:\u00a0Blossoms and Blessings<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 8:\u00a0Artistic Nobody<\/a><\/p>\n December 9:\u00a0Daysong Reflections<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 9:\u00a0Debbie\u2019s Dusty Deliberations<\/a><\/p>\n December 10:\u00a0D\u2019S QUILTS & BOOKS<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 10:\u00a0Bukwurmzzz<\/a><\/p>\n December 11:\u00a0Petra\u2019s Hope<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 12:\u00a0Chas Ray\u2019s Book Nerd Corner<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 12:\u00a0The Power of Words<\/a> (spotlight)<\/p>\n December 13:\u00a0A Baker\u2019s Perspective<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 14:\u00a0Carpe Diem<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 14:\u00a0Reading Is My SuperPower<\/a><\/p>\n December 15:\u00a0Bigreadersite<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 15:\u00a0Quiet Quilter<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 16:\u00a0Christian Bookaholic<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 17:\u00a0A Path of Joy<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 18:\u00a0Jeanette\u2019s Thoughts<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 18:\u00a0Karen\u2019s Krayons<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 19:\u00a0 Simple Harvest Reads<\/a>\u00a0(Spotlight)<\/p>\n December 19:\u00a0A Greater Yes<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 20:\u00a0Moments Dipped in Ink<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n December 21:\u00a0Bibliophile Reviews<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n GIVEAWAY:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/02\/divider2.png\")
Terri Wangard<\/strong> grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, during the Lombardi Glory Years. Her first Girl Scout badge was the Writer. These days she is writing historical fiction, and won the 2013 Writers on the Storm contest and 2013 First Impressions, as well as being a 2012 Genesis finalist. Holder of a bachelor\u2019s degree in history and a master\u2019s degree in library science, she lives in Wisconsin. Her research included going for a ride in a WWII B-17 Flying Fortress bomber.\u00a0Classic Boating<\/em>\u00a0Magazine, a family business since 1984, keeps her busy as an associate editor.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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