New 142nd headquarters to be built at Fort Chaffee
by March 11, 2025 5:46 pm 1,429 views
Rendering of the planned new 142nd Field Artillery Brigade headquarters at Fort Chaffee.
The Arkansas National Guard will on Thursday (March 13) ceremonially mark the start of construction on a new headquarters at Fort Chaffee for the 142nd Field Artillery Brigade, which is now based in Fayetteville.
Officials are set to gather Thursday at the Fort Chaffee Joint Maneuver Training Center to break ground on a 37,324-square-foot readiness center that is estimated to cost $14.114 million. The facility will be the new 142nd headquarters and is scheduled to be complete in September 2026. The new center will be on 12 acres of Fort Chaffee property.
The new headquarters facility will house 19 full-time military personnel and another 69 members during weekend drills.
“The new 142nd Field Artillery Brigade facility is part of our ongoing efforts to modernize our older readiness centers across the state,” Brig. Gen. Chad Bridges, Arkansas’ adjutant general, said in a statement. “We thank our state and federal elected officials for their support to make this project a reality. This is the first new Readiness Center we’ve built since the Cabot Armory in 2011.”
According to the Guard, the building will include assembly space, classrooms, a multipurpose training area, a kitchen, breakroom with vending machine space, restrooms with showers, lactation space, family readiness and retention areas, storage space for audio-visual equipment, tables and chairs; and a secure classroom.
Garver Engineering designed the building. Nabholz Construction Corporation is the general contractor.
The 142nd is one of only eight field artillery brigades in the National Guard, and has soldiers in 12 units located in Barling, Bentonville, Fayetteville, Lincoln, Ozark, and Siloam Springs. The 142nd also has soldiers in two battalions in Alabama and Tennessee. The unit has approximately 1,320 members, according to the Guard.
It was announced in September 2024 that the brigade was adding nine Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS). A new Charlie Battery handling the MLRS units was added to the 1st Battalion of the brigade and was estimated to add 78 soldiers. In addition to the nine MLRS units added to Charlie Battery, the Alpha and Bravo batteries will gain an additional MLRS per unit.