I would like to follow that post up with the flip side of this movie...

http://mercitrain.org/

I encourage everyone who reads this forum to travel to their states "Merci Train" boxcar, if it still survives.

I am only affiliated with this page as in I have been to my states boxcar and have met with the webmasters of this site and they, as well as the sites original creator, have put many hours into it cataloguing everything about this thank you from the French government.

The following is a quote from the sites main page:

"The Merci Train was a train of 49 French railroad box cars filled with tens of thousands of gifts of gratitude from at least that many individual French citizens. They were showing their appreciation for the more than 700 American box cars of relief goods sent to them by (primarily) individual Americans in 1948. The Merci Train arrived in New York harbor on February 3rd, 1949 and each of the 48 American states at that time received one of the gift laden box cars. The 49th box car was shared by Washington D.C. and the Territory of Hawaii. Parades and ceremonies of welcome were conducted in the state capitols and major cities of almost all the states. The largest and most attended was in New York City where more than 200,000 people turned out to welcome that state's assigned box car."

Take some time to look through the whole page and read the history of each states car. Some are disparaging on how they were treated, some the opposite and well maintained.

I would think any WWII vet would thank you for the time and effort you would take to learn about this little known French/American railway bit of history.

-Kevin