PFC Robert D. Cassel
Original Source: Fold 3. Photo Retouching by Ellen Marchese.
Private First Class (PFC) Robert Dale Cassel of Fox Company, 2nd Battalion, 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment (PIR), 101st Airborne Division, was born in Chetopa, Labette County, Kansas, to Richard C. and Emma P. (Lightfoot) Cassel on June 10, 1913.
He had one older sister, Maxine, and one younger brother, John R. Cassel. John served as a corporal with the 91st Mechanized Cavalry Reconnaissance Squadron of the U.S. Army during World War II.
Robert Cassel attended three years of high school at the Vinita Public Schools in Vinita, Oklahoma. He registered for the draft in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on October 16, 1940. At the time, he worked as a bellboy at the Adams Hotel in downtown Tulsa. The Adams was a luxury hotel, beautifully designed in a combination of Gothic, Italian Renaissance, and Baroque influences. His wife, Fay, worked as a waitress in the same hotel.
Robert Cassel enlisted in the U.S. Army at San Antonio, Texas, as a member of a medical detachment on April 29, 1942.
He was first stationed at Fort Sam Houston, San Antonio, and later at Camp Barkley. The base was located eleven miles southwest of Abilene, Texas, and housed the Medical Administrative Officer Candidate School. PFC Cassel then volunteered for the paratroopers and received his basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, and Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He would be assigned to Fox/502 and sailed to England from New York Harbor when he boarded the SS Strathnaver on September 4, 1943.
The Fox Company paratroopers settled into quarters in Denford House, two miles from the town of Hungerford, Berkshire, England. The men were housed in Quonset huts, which typically accommodated 18 men each. The paratroopers underwent more rigorous physical training and participated in several exercises, including Exercise Beaver (March 1944), Exercise Tiger (April 1944), and Exercise Eagle (May 1944), to prepare them for their mission on D-Day.
PFC Robert Cassel jumped into Normandy in the early hours of June 6, 1944, and died under unknown circumstances that day.
Morning Report courtesy of Felipe Jirkal and Brian Siddall.
Another Screaming Eagle had soared to the ultimate height. 🦅
Happy Birthday in Heaven, Robert.
Lest we forget. 🇺🇸
Sources
The Vinita Leader (Vinita, Oklahoma); Thursday, June 10, 1948
Morning Examiner (Bartlesville, Oklahoma); Sunday, June 13, 1948