Anita Deason

Retired officer continues to serve Arkansas

Retired Arkansas Army National Guard Col. Anita Deason of Conway is the military and Veterans Affairs liaison in U.S. Sen. John Boozman’s office in Little Rock. She works on numerous projects for military service members, veterans and their families, including the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.
Retired Arkansas Army National Guard Col. Anita Deason of Conway is the military and Veterans Affairs liaison in U.S. Sen. John Boozman’s office in Little Rock. She works on numerous projects for military service members, veterans and their families, including the Library of Congress Veterans History Project.

As the United States prepares to celebrate Independence Day this July 4, retired Arkansas Army National Guard Col. Anita Deason of Conway hopes citizens will reflect on one thing that binds the country together as a nation — the American flag.

In her current role as military and Veterans Affairs liaison in the Little Rock office of U.S. Sen. John Boozman, R-Ark., Deason often gives presentations on the American flag.

“My first recollection of the flag is at the post office,” said Deason, 55.

“Both of my parents worked at the post office in Mayflower, where I grew up. As a kid, one of my chores was to take down the U.S. flag at the post office. But probably the most powerful memory I have of the flag is in reference to 9/11,” she said.

“I was in the National Guard then (Sept. 11, 2001) stationed at Camp Robinson in [North Little Rock]. We made it through that day, and somehow, the next day was 9/12. The whole world had changed,” she said.

“I had a young son, Zach, and I took him to day care every morning in Conway on my way to work at Camp Robinson. I went in early every day, so I would take him about 6 every morning,” Deason said.

“I drove up that day, dressed in uniform as I did every day. I got out of the car to take him inside, and the owner asked me, ‘Would you raise our flag today?’ I agreed,” she said.

“My son was a Cub Scout. He got out of the car and helped me. As we finished, we saluted the flag as we always did,” she said.

“What I did not realize … was that cars were stopping in the parking lot, stopping on the sides of the street; people were getting out of their cars, saluting that flag, putting their hands over their hearts,” Deason said with tears in her eyes.

“That was a very powerful moment,” she said. “The bonds we have to that flag unite us as a nation.”

Deason said she asked her son not too long ago to listen to a speech she was preparing to present on the American flag.

“I asked him what his first memory of the flag was, thinking it might be Cub Scouts,” she said, “but his answer was that moment on 9/12.”

Deason’s son, Zach Long, is now 25. He and his wife, Saki, live in Hawaii. Zach is also the son of Darrell Long of Maumelle.

Zach, who is an Eagle Scout, has a master’s degree in international relations from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and is working on a doctorate in history at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where he is also a teaching assistant. He met his wife in Japan while he was there as an exchange student through a program at the University of Arkansas.

Deason also has three stepdaughters in Mississippi and Louisiana and five step-grandchildren.

Deason was born in Little Rock, the daughter of the late Alph and Oleda Herron. She grew up in the Lollie Bottoms area near Mayflower and attended Mayflower Public Schools.

She was active in school — she was a Girl Scout, played basketball and was a cheerleader and a member of Jay Teens, which is affiliated with the Jaycees. She attended Arkansas Girls State, which is sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary; she also passed out poppies, a program that is also sponsored by the American Legion Auxiliary.

“Looking back, … maybe it was destined that I lead a life of service, to be a team player,” she said. “I can’t sing or play an instrument. I can’t do a lot of things, but I can serve others.”

Deason has three older brothers — Ronald Herron and Thomas “Buck” Herron, both of Mayflower, and Steve Herron of Conway.

“My dad was a World War II veteran in the Navy,” she said. “He served in the Philippines, but I know very little about his service.

“As a kid, I knew he was in the Navy, but he never talked about it,” she said. “I remember once I asked him what they did when somebody died on ship.

“He said, ‘We throw them overboard.’ I didn’t know he meant burying them at sea. I never asked him anything else.”

Deason graduated from Mayflower High School in 1978 but did not go to college right away.

“All of my college was through night school,” she said. She has a liberal arts degree from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and a master’s degree in public administration from Webster University.

“I have seven colleges on my transcript,” she said with a laugh. “I went to school when and wherever I could. I never gave up.”

Deason said she discussed going to college with her parents right after high school, but for various reasons, they did not offer much encouragement.

“My dad told me, ‘You need to get a government job.’”

And that is what she did.

“I had worked at the high school during the summer doing secretarial work,” she said, adding that she was encouraged to apply for a secretarial job at Camp Robinson.

“Reluctantly, I filled out the paperwork for a state job,” she said. “And at 17, right out of high school, I was hired as a member of the typing pool at Camp Robinson.

“I worked in the same room with men and women who were in uniform,” she said. “There was just something about them … their camaraderie. … They had something that I didn’t. I wanted to be a part of what they were. … I wanted to be part of something bigger than myself.”

Deason said a friend of hers was a recruiter and helped her fill out her

enlistment contract with the

National Guard.

“I was 19,” she said. “She took my enlistment papers straight to the adjutant general — Jimmy Red Jones — and he swore me in.”

Deason was married to her first husband for 16 years.

“Then I was single for 15 years,” she said. “And then I met the love of my life, Ira Don “Donnie” Deason. Coincidentally, he retired out of the post office in Mississippi.

“He was my best friend,” she said. “We hunted, fished, kayaked and rode four-wheelers and motorcycles. We dated for a year and a half.

“He wasn’t feeling well, went to the doctor thinking it was his appendix,” she said. “He went in for surgery, and yes, it was his appendix, but it was cancer, too. … It had

metastasized … stage 4 cancer.”

“He asked me to marry him after we learned about the cancer,” she said, “but it was conditional. … He wanted me to wear a wedding dress, and he wanted to get married in a church.

“He was 59, and I was 50,” she said, smiling.

“We were married June 11, 2011, at Camp Robinson at the post chapel by a military chaplain,” she said. “It was a fairy-tale wedding.

“At the end of the wedding ceremony, we walked through a military saber arch. Typical tradition is the couple is stopped, and the new wife is gently swatted on the backside with a ‘welcome to the military, ma’am,’ but Donnie was welcomed at our wedding by Command Sgt. Maj. Debbie Collins, the first female command sergeant major for the Arkansas National Guard. Our reception was held at Chappell Armory nearby.

“The evening before, a dinner rehearsal was held, and the chief of staff for the Arkansas Guard, Brig. Gen. Richard Swan, who was my boss, presented Donnie with a certificate making him an ‘honorary colonel.’ [Swan] said he’d need it, being married to me.”

Donnie Deason died Dec. 19, 2011, six months after the couple were married.

Deason was in the National Guard for 33 years and served in a variety of traditional command and staff assignments including platoon leader, detachment commander, company executive officer and company commander. She was promoted to the rank of colonel during her final assignment as human resources officer for the Arkansas National Guard.

She retired March 31, 2013. Her awards and decorations are numerous — Legion of Merit, Meritorious Service Medal, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal, Arkansas Commendation Medal, Arkansas Recruiting and Retention Ribbon, the Arkansas National Guard Staff Badge and the Signal Corps Bronze Order of Mercury. She is also a member of the Arkansas Military Academy’s Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame.

“Those 33 years went by in a minute,” she said. “I was blessed to have worked with the finest people on the face of the planet. They are truly the ‘salt of the earth.’

“The National Guard has a dual mission,” she said. “They are under the governor’s rule, when called up for state disasters such as floods and tornadoes, but they are also under the president when they are called up for deployment.

“I was never deployed,” she said. “That’s a bitter pill to swallow. I volunteered for Afghanistan but was told I was needed more here.

“I have the utmost respect for all who are, and have been, deployed, from the World War II veterans who were drafted to those who volunteer to go today.”

A month after Deason retired from the National Guard, she was visiting her son in Japan, and she “blew out” her ankle and foot.

“Boom,” she said. “That’s what happened. My foot and ankle were just worn out. I came back home, struggled with it, and about a year later, finally had surgery. Then I was laid up for about another year. … I was in a cast or a boot.

“I certainly wasn’t looking for a job,” she said with a laugh. “But then friends told me about this job vacancy in the senator’s office and thought I might make a nice fit. I was barely back in shoes, but I applied for it, and here I am.”

During her military career, Deason worked for several years as a secretary to the general staff, “doing whatever.”

“A slice of that job was serving as a congressional liaison,” she said. “I worked with all the congressmen and their staffs, including Sen. Boozman. So I knew a little about what this new job would entail.

“I was hired in February 2015,” she said. “I’m still a newbie.

“I probably wouldn’t have come out of retirement to work for anyone else,” she said. “Sen. Boozman is sincere, genuine and hardworking. His motto is ‘Use the office for good.’”

Deason works on a variety of projects in Boozman’s office in Little Rock, as does the rest of the staff in that office and in six other offices across Arkansas, which she refers to as “Team Boozman.”

In her job at Boozman’s office, Deason assists service members, veterans and their families in obtaining lost or misplaced service medals, and, in some cases, medals that had never been received. She helps in obtaining other military records, works with funeral and burial arrangements, and with veterans issues such as medical, claims and appeals. She also works with legislation as Boozman serves on the Senate’s Veterans Affairs Committee.

One project that is near and dear to Deason’s heart is the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, which collects and preserves personal stories and other documents from America’s war veterans.

“I got a call from the senator’s chief of staff in Washington asking me to help ‘breathe new life’ into this project,” she said. “I agreed.

“This project is important to the senator,” she said. “His father was a World War II veteran and died when he was in his 60s. [Sen. Boozman] knows the importance of asking all these questions of veterans and of recording their stories.

“I lost my father when I was 19,” Deason said, tears welling in her eyes once again. “I know only marginal things about his service. This is a very emotional thing for me. I never even said, ‘Thank you, Dad.’

“War steals your youth. When I do a Veterans History Project interview, it’s always emotional for me. I missed that with my dad. I don’t want anybody else to miss it with his or her family member.

“You go into this thinking, ‘I’m going to do this for you’ (record your military stories), but you walk away thinking, ‘Oh my gosh. I am so humbled and honored to have gotten to know this individual.’

“Almost every time, you come away in tears. They are so grateful for us to listen to their stories. More often than not, it is cathartic for them.”

Boozman’s office offers workshops for people who are interested in being a part of the Veterans History Project.

“The problem is not finding veterans but finding people who are willing to be trained to do the interviews,” she said. “We have at least 20 veterans waiting to be interviewed.

“Several colleges have taken on this project — the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and the University of the Ozarks in particular,” she said. “The Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs in central Arkansas, the Arkansas chapter of the American Red Cross and the Arkansas Educational Television Network also promote the project, as do numerous individuals and organizations throughout the state.

“I would love, love, love for high schools to get involved. I am working on that now. It could even be an Eagle Scout project.

“We go all over the state to do these workshops. I launch like a rocket.”

Deason said she believes it is a good time to be a veteran in Arkansas.

“There are so many people doing good things for veterans. The first line for veterans is the county veterans service officer,” she said.

“Other organizations that can help are the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans service organizations such as Veterans of Foreign Wars, the American Legion, Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, Military Order of the World Wars, Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, the Marine Corps League and others,” she said. “There is also great work being done by the Arkansas Veterans Coalition and Veterans Impact. And several colleges and universities, including the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, UALR and Arkansas Tech University in Russellville, have student veterans organizations. Community support is also found from Daughters of the American Revolution chapters and the Patriot Guard Riders.”

For more information about the Veterans History Project or other military or veterans issues, visit Boozman’s Facebook page or call his Little Rock office at (501) 372-7253. If Deason cannot provide immediate answers, she will find someone who can.

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