"Consider it done, shouted Vic" A WW II story

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( From the "Mojave Desert News" Thursday, November 9, 1967, p. 2.)
Mojave Fed the Troops on Christmas

The following letter was written to Joshua Barracks Commander Edward H. Fleming, by Mr. R. A. Holcomb who is the General Chairman, Dept. of California, Veterans of World War I, U.S.A. Attempts to verify the story were largely unsuccessful, since the incident apparently did not stand out in the many memories of feeding troops during the war years.
"It was Christmas Eve, 1943 or 1944, I'm not sure which. I was Divisional General Manager for Valleymaid Creameries, in L.A., at the time. And my instructions were that every one of our employees should be off duty that night to be with their families. Everybody except an engineer, one had to be on duty day and night.
"About eleven o'clock that night, the phone in my home rang. It proved to be the engineer on duty. He said that the Santa Fe had just phoned in an order for sliced brick ice cream for a troop train that would be in the L. A. yards about 11:45. There being nobody on duty to fill the order and deliver it, I decided to do so myself. So. I went down to the plant, packed the order and delivered it to the Santa Fe yards in L.A. A few minutes after I got there, the train pulled in. The young officer in charge of the troop movement wanted to know where the rest of his order was. He'd ordered everything a troop movement would need to keep eating. And not a purveyor had shown up except myself. And he didn't have a damned thing but ice cream approximately 350 men in his charge...I know the sales managers of the various organizations with whom the orders had been placed and tried to reach them by phone. But, not a one of them answered. So, something had to be done to keep those boys from going hungry on Christmas Day.
"We checked with the train conductor who told us they would be leaving as soon as possible. I asked what time he would be arriving in Mojave. He looked at his watch, did a bit of mental calculating and then said: 'Abut 2:30 A.M.'
"Okay, hold the train a few minutes while I phone a few friends. I believe I can help you," I said and he agreed.
"I put through a long distance call to a customer of mine by the name of Vic Smyth, who operated a fountain-lunch shop in Mojave in those days. I told Vic of the problem, then said: 'these kids are going to have a pretty barren Christmas with nothing aboard that train to eat. You can help if you will, Vic.'
"Tell me what to do and I'll do it,' Vic shouted. So, I suggested that he phone every food retailer in town and arrange for them to be at the depot when that train pulled in at 2:35 in the morning.
"Consider it done.' shouted Vic, then hung up.
"I found out later what happened...
"That troop train pulled into Mojave on time to the minute. And the depot platform was crowded with food merchants, everyone of them in town. About twenty of those young troopers were instructed to drag baggage trucks down the main business street of Mojave and to stop in front of every food store in town. And they did this and at each stop, the merchant supplied all that he could from his stock and the young officer paid them with warrants . Then, they'd go on to the next ando it all over. And when that troop train pulled our of town, there was enough foodstuffs aboard to assure a merry Christmas and plenty of food left over for the next day. But, I was told there wasn't much of any stock left in the retail food stores of Mojave until they were replenished the day after Christmas.
"So Mojave has a lot to be proud of , and so has its people---those who lived there at the time, and every citizen who has come there to live since that day should know what kind of a town and what kind of people that have for neighbors...."