When Ron Chastain was elected president of the student body at County Line High School near Branch in Franklin County, the now 63-year-old never dreamed he might one day command thousands of soldiers. But he did just that, commanding not only soldiers serving in Arkansas but those serving abroad in harm’s way.
Retired Army Maj. Gen. Ronald S. Chastain, who has lived in Conway for more than 30 years, retired in 2010 as the deputy commanding general for the Arkansas Army National Guard at the U.S. Army Forces Command. His 38-year military career includes serving as the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, commander of the 39th Brigade Combat Team during Operation Iraqi Freedom II and commander of the 25th Rear Operations Center during Operation Desert Storm. He also served as chief of staff (wartime) for the United States Forces Korea.
Chastain will be inducted into the Arkansas Military Veterans’ Hall of Fame on Nov. 1 at the Embassy Suites in Little Rock. U.S. Sens. John Boozman, R-Ark., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., will present the medallions.
The Arkansas Military Veterans’ Hall of Fame was organized in late 2010 and recognized on April 4, 2011, with a joint resolution from the Arkansas Legislature and Gov. Mike Beebe. According to information found on its website, www.amvhof.org, the purpose of the nonprofit organization is “to honor Arkansas military veterans and to educate Arkansans through the AMVHOF website of their outstanding accomplishments.”
Chastain said he is honored to be recognized by the Arkansas Military Veterans’ Hall of Fame.
“Most of the people they have honored, I consider heroes,” Chastain said. “And then there are some like me. I didn’t do anything heroic.
“This award I am getting is really on behalf of the 39th Brigade. Those individual soldiers were the heroes. I was just in the position of trying to manage or direct the 5,000 soldiers we had over there.”
During the course of his military career, Chastain received several awards, including the Legion of Merit and two Bronze Star medals.
He also received the Army Distinguished Service Medal when he retired.
“I consider that the biggest honor,” he said.
Chastain is now an agriculture liaison for Boozman in his Little Rock office. Chastain travels the state working with those who have agriculture issues with the federal government.
“I try to get to the bottom of it,” he said.
Chastain said he had been retired for 2 1/2 months “when [Boozman] called me up to congratulate me on my military service. I told him I would be happy to help him in any way I could.
“I had retired from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and knew he would need help handling agriculture issues. Agriculture is the biggest business in our state.”
Chastain is one of 12 children born to the late J.S. and Alta Chastain of Paris in Logan County. He said one child died in infancy and another drowned while in the ninth grade.
“I was somewhere in the middle,” he said, noting that two of his older brothers were also in the military.
Chastain graduated in 1968 from County Line High School, which is located on the Franklin/Logan county line. In addition to serving as student-body president, he also was president of his graduating class of 28. He played basketball and baseball and was on the track team. He was captain of the basketball team for two years.
He graduated from Arkansas Tech University in 1972, where he majored in biology.
“I liked the courses, and I knew I had to get a degree,” he said.
At that time, Tech required “all able male students to be enrolled in the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps for the first two years of school,” Chastain said.
“In my sophomore year in 1969, I received my first draft letter. That meant within five months, I’d be drafted, or I could elect to stay in ROTC. I chose to stay in ROTC.
“It was a wise decision, as I look back on it,” he said. “I graduated in 1972, just as the Vietnam War was winding down.”
Chastain received a commission as second lieutenant in the Army Reserve upon graduation from the ROTC program at Tech on July 7, 1972. He began his military career by serving three months on active duty for training.
He graduated from the Army War College in 1998.
“Most of my military service was with the National Guard,” he said. “I served in the Guard from January 1975 until I retired in October 2010.”
Chastain commanded the 25th Rear Area Operations Center during Desert Storm, serving in the desert from January 1990 to May 1991.
“We served with the 18th Airborne Corps,” he said. “It didn’t last long.”
On July 1, 2000, Chastain became commander of the 39th Infantry Brigade of the Arkansas National Guard. The unit deployed to Iraq in March 2007.
“We had soldiers from 10 states,” Chastain said. “We also had an active-duty battalion with us, the 1st Calvary Division, as well as a Macedonia Special Forces Platoon and 1,500 Iraqi soldiers. There were over 5,000 [soldiers] under my command.
“We saw action every day,” Chastain said. “We hadn’t planned it that way. We lost 16 Arkansans during that year.”
Chastain said he returned home to Conway in April 2005 and, in October, was assigned duties as the wartime chief of staff of the U.S. Forces Korea.
On Oct. 17, 2005, Chastain received federal recognition as a major general of the line.
In June 2006, then Gov. Mike Huckabee appointed Chastain as the adjutant general of the Arkansas National Guard, a position he would hold until February 2007, when the new governor, Mike Beebe, appointed someone else.
Chastain then became the deputy commanding general for the Arkansas Army National Guard at the U.S. Army Forces Command.
“I worked with mobilized guard units as they planned to deploy to Iraq and Afghanistan,” Chastain said.
Chastain also had a civilian career. He worked for the Farm Service Agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture for 32 years, retiring from that job when he became adjutant general of the National Guard.
Chastain and his wife, Pam, have been married for 43 years. Pam, the daughter of the late Jack and Elaine Berry, is originally from Dover.
They met as students at Arkansas Tech. Although Pam did not graduate, she kept books for David Stobaugh at Stoby’s restaurants — one in Conway and one in Russellville — for more than 20 years.
When asked about hobbies, Chastain said he and Pam recently purchased “a little piece of land (34 acres) north of Conway.
“We both enjoy working out there, cleaning it up,” he said. “But I’m not sure it’s a hobby. We’re having to work too hard.”
The Chastains are members of First United Methodist Church in Conway.
Chastain said he plans to keep working for Boozman “as long as I enjoy it,” he said.
“I’d like to continue to help the senator,” he said. “I think he tries to use the power of his office for the good. That’s what I try to help him do.
“I’m in good health, and I enjoy what I do.”
Chastain also enjoys teaching a class on flag etiquette to fifth-graders.
“The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs has a flag-etiquette program for fifth-graders,” he said. “We are the only state that has this. It relies on volunteers.
“I volunteer; other people do, too. I’ve presented 25 programs this year in Little Rock, and I’ll probably do 10 more,” he said. “I just did one
here in Conway at Simon
Intermediate School.”
Chastain said he would recommend a career in the military to young people.
“I think everybody ought to be in the military,” he said. “The discipline and leadership skills you learn carry over into the civilian world. It would be a very good deal.”