Virtual History Stories

 This is a Story about The US Navy Service Record of Chester Renel McCashland and the stories we learned as a result of following the threads of his record. McCashland is shown here near the end of his US Navy career of over 30 years.  The above photo was undoubtedly captured in the World War Two era judging from the insignia on McCashland's left arm.  By the time McCashland left US Navy service in the the early 1940's he was an Old Salt...and quite likely a very worn out Old Salt.   (NOTE: We believe this is a photo of Mr. McCashland but cannot be 100% certain.) We believe McCashland enlisted in the US Navy in Omaha, Nebraska, at the age of 19.  He was born July 5, 1895 in McCook, Nebraska, and his service record appears to show he enlisted in 1914 at the age of 19.  Ancestry records indicate most of America's McCashland's populated Nebraska from the 1880's forward and they were all farmers.  It's reasonable speculation young McCashland couldn't ...

A couple of hundred people gathered at the field a mile east of the city Thursday morning to see the arrival of the Royal Air Truck and the delivery by parachute of a consignment of portable typewriters to R. R. Roszell. The big machine hove in sight from the southeast at about a quarter past eleven and was soon overhead and circling about looking over the grounds and the crowd. The pilot located the landing field by the crowd and the white sheet Mr. Roszell had staked to the ground and in a few minutes flew on west and maneuvered over Beatrice awhile, then came back to the Lenhart farm and after circling about a few seconds, the trap door in the bottom of the plane was opened and the box of typewriters with parachute attached was dropped while the airplane was directly over Lenhart's house. The wind was in the west and carried the parachute a few rods east, alighting & gently on the ground between the two lines of cars and directly behind Mr. Roszell's automobile. The land...