Armory was home to machine gun troop

Hannah Gross
NLJ Correspondent
With Leonard Cash
 
Leonard Cash, local historian, starts this week’s installment of the “History on Main” series of the state armory with the 50th anniversary of Machine Gun Troop W.N.G.
As a way to commemorate the historic landmark, the May 9 and May 16, 1940, local newspaper featured a two-part series on the troop’s history. 
“There is no other town in the state (of Wyoming) that has a Machine Gun Troop, and there has never been a time when the company was not up to full numerical strength,” the article says. “As the years went by, the Newcastle unit acquired prestige and there have been few periods when there were not plenty of applications on the waiting list.”
A few months later, the newspaper reported on Nov. 14. 1940, that Newcastle’s cavalry was bringing in some upgrades. 
“Effective November 1, the 115th Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard, was redesignated as the 115th Cavalry H-Mechanized, being one of nine such regiments in the United States,” the article said. 
The Machine Gun Troop was changed to “Troop F, 4th Motorcycle Platoon, 115th Cavalry, H-Mechanized.” It was to have one officer and 37 enlisted men, with First. Lt. Edward W. Craig as the commanding officer because the former commander, Capt. T.C. Howell, was transferred to Casper.
Cash said that even a transfer didn’t necessarily mean the person moved to the new location.  Sometimes, transferees still lived in their own town but had to attend meetings in the city to which they were transferred.
First. Lt. Dan Evander became the new commanding officer, according to the newspaper of Nov. 21, 1940. The article also says that the construction of the cavalry barns was expected to proceed even though it wasn’t likely for any of the horses, which Cash said were in Washington, to return.
“The building may be used to house national guard equipment, including mostly trucks of other guard units,” the article said. 
The July 17, 1941, edition of the paper said that the riding hall next to the stables was expected to be completed soon; however, later we will see that this was not the case. 
According to the Feb. 19, 1942, issue of the paper, Evander met with the Lions Club at its meeting to discuss the shape of the local 115th Cavalry troop.
“Evander told the group that the 115th Cavalry soldiers at Fort Lewis (Washington) were among the most outstanding in the entire territory,” the article says. According to Cash, the soldiers were in Fort Lewis for training. 
Meanwhile, back in Newcastle, Evander said the locals didn’t “seem to realize that the war (was) really going on,” so he took the time to shed some light on what it was like for communities more affected by the war. He explained that rent for small houses would frequently rise to $100 and in front of every store and on every street corner, there were 50 gallon drums of beach sand in case of “incendiary bombings.” 
To prepare for potential evacuations, children and infants were “fingerprinted and tagged with matched identifications,” which were carried by their parents, so that they could easily be found and relocated to each other in case of separation. 
“His interesting description and explanation made the war seem much closer to Wyoming,” the article says. 
Before continuing in the history of the armory, Cash wanted to take some time to include a section about Lawrence Cnossen (also spelled Knaussen) and his mule named “Hambone,” who both served in the army. 
Cnossen was a longtime veteran, according to a local news article from Aug. 25, 1925, and when he was 65, he signed up for six more years in the army at Fort Carson, Colorado. His military career started at Newcastle in 1924, and he had been stationed all around the west side of the country since then and even stationed a few times overseas. He was a stable sergeant and had been working with horses since he was a child. 
Cnossen was born in Holland on Sept. 13, 1889, to Johan Cnossen and Riepkje van der Muelen, according to Ancestry.com. He immigrated to the U.S. in 1911, and later, he married Geneva Cnossen. 
Hamilton T. Bone, also known as “Hambone,” was an army mule that Cnossen worked with. According to an internet article in Cash’s records, Hambone was a tough mule to train, taking “a pound of spit and sweat and a ton of cussing to turn him into a first-rate mule.” However, he served the army well and died at the ripe old age of 39. Hambone is now buried in front of the Division Artillery Headquarters, according to the article. 
“Despite the ‘nuclear age’ and widespread transportation changes in the military, Cnossen thinks the Army mules and horses are here to stay,” the newspaper article says. Cnossen’s love for mules, and horses especially, was made obvious throughout the article.
 “When his latest hitch is up – at age 71 – the crusty cavalryman isn’t sure he’ll sign up again,” it said. “But it’s a safe guess that the old-timer will stay if the horses and mules do.”
However, when automobiles started becoming popular, animal transportation soon became sparse in the military, and we will go into more detail about that in next week’s installment of “History on Main.”
 
The News Letter Journal/Leonard Cash history series continues in next week’s issue.