Under new command: Fort Chaffee follows a new leader

A new Fort Chaffee post commander started working on Aug. 1.

Maj. Gen. Kendall Penn, Arkansas' adjutant general, appointed Col. David Gibbons to begin working as post commander. Gibbons replaced Col. Nicholas Jaskolski as the garrison commander of Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center.

Jaskolski, who took command on June 2, 2021, is now working as the Arkansas Army National Guard's deputy chief of staff of operations.

Gibbons is in charge of the 65,000 acres and about 200 people who make up Fort Chaffee.

Fort Chaffee is the state's largest military installation.

"Military units from around the country complete routine training at the installation, to include maneuver training, live-fire exercises, river crossing operations, urban combat training, command post exercises, and battlefield simulations," according to a statement from Fort Chaffee.

All branches of the military use Fort Chaffee as a training site. Fort Chaffee has about 230,000 training days a year.

Military lives While losing vets every year, Fort Smith military groups advocate for better lives

Many soldiers who train at Fort Chaffee live in the surrounding area, and a great deal of them are Arkansas Guard units.

The varied terrain at Fort Chaffee provides training for numerous activities.

Before Gibbons' appointment to post commander, he served as the training site manager at Fort Chaffee.

He said that Gibbons' military career prepared him to become the post commander.

"I can tell you from our perspective... that Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center is a critical centerpiece for the Arkansas Army and Air National Guard and how we train our Soldiers and Airmen. Our military units wouldn’t be as well trained as they are without a place like Fort Chaffee to train," said John Oldham, a public affairs specialist for the Arkansas National Guard, in an email.

Fort Chaffee remains the only location in Arkansas that offers such diverse training opportunities.

"There is no other place in the state for the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade to train on their weapons systems... We have nothing else comparable for the 39th Infantry Brigade Combat Team to practice large-scale infantry maneuvers and operations," Oldham said in an email. "Additionally, the 188th Wing at Ebbing Air National Guard Base uses Razorback Range on Fort Chaffee to help train Air National Guard’s Joint Terminal Attack Controllers, training 430 visiting JTACs that call in roughly 5,000 controlled strikes on ground targets on Razorback Range. "

Gibbons said that Fort Chaffee is unique because of the huge level of community support it receives.

“We want to maintain it and improve it at every opportunity," Gibbons said about support from the community.

Gibbons noted this as one of his top priorities.

“I would say it’s definitely a goal of mine to make sure that the surrounding areas understand that we at Fort Chaffee appreciate their support," Gibbons said. "We view ourselves as a partner with the local communities and everything that the various communities surrounding us has going on."

Fort Chaffee's Impact

For about 80 years, Fort Chaffee has been putting its neighbors, including the city of Fort Smith, into U.S. military history, said Lorie Robertson, the director of marketing for the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority.

“That has resulted in a very quiet but very powerful economic impact on the entire western Arkansas region," Robertson said.

Fort Chaffee brings units to the area to train, where they spend money contributing to the local economy.

“It impacts the livelihood of many civilian families in the area as well as when training units come in here from other states they stay both on-site on Fort Chaffee and in area hotels," Robertson said. "They eat in our restaurants. They shop with our business owners. They contribute to our sales tax base, which in turn benefits every Crawford County Sebastian resident and property owner because they help pay for our infrastructure and daily necessities through sales tax contributions."

Robertson said that the economic impact of Fort Chaffee is significant.

“Any place in the U.S. where there are, of course, active military bases but also active training centers such as Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center, the economic impact is significant billions and billions of dollars are poured into maintaining that facility," Robertson said.

But she added that the economic impact of Fort Chaffee is difficult to assess.

“So it’s very difficult to measure the economic impact it has on a community, but we acknowledge it and recognize it," Robertson said.

History of Fort Chaffee

Fort Chaffee opened in 1942. In the 1990s, the Army and Department of Defense determined that Fort Chaffee had an excess of 7,000 acres. Robertson said about 1,500 acres of that 7,000 were used for special public uses such as the Interstate 49 corridor.

The rest of the acreage went to the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority, which officials designed to sell off the land for development.

Realtor Chuck Fawcett was one of the first to begin selling houses in what became Chaffee Crossing, which was made up of the land that Fort Chaffee entrusted to the Fort Chaffee Redevelopment Authority.

Fawcett's subdivision was called the Woods at Chaffee Crossing in 2008.

“But it took a while for everybody knowing that there were houses out there," Fawcett said.

Before those first neighborhoods formed, Mars Petcare and Graphic Packaging International opened for business in Chaffee Crossing. Because of the land that officials at Fort Chaffee gave up, Chaffee Crossing is a place full of potential. Fawcett estimated that builders had created 500 houses since 2008.

Alex Gladden is a University of Arkansas graduate. She previously reported for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and The Jonesboro Sun before joining the Times Record. She can be contacted at agladden@swtimes.com.  

This article originally appeared on Fort Smith Times Record: New commander in charge at Fort Chaffee as of August 1