Featured obituary: Mr. Edward W. Chastain

Edward W. Chastain lived a full life, full of experiences and service to fellow veterans.

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But the Purple Heart recipient was very unassuming about it and loved to be with and meet people, family said.

Mr. Chastain, 82, died at University Hospital on July 8.

"He was a person who always did things for other people," said Melanie A. Chastain, one of his three daughters.

"He didn't want to be the center of attention. He made sure everybody else had a good time," she said.

Ms. Chastain and one of her sisters, Faye C. Long, said Mr. Chastain worked for 34 years for DuPont at the Savannah River Project, during the height of the Cold War.

But he never spoke a lot about what he did, they said.

"To him, he was working for his government, and it was a secret," Ms. Chastain said. "He wasn't supposed to talk about it, and he never did."

Mr. Chastain served and was wounded during World War II, family said. As with his days with DuPont, he didn't tell many stories about the war - other than about the day he was wounded while in Cologne, Germany.

It was a story that every year, before Thanksgiving, Mr. Chastain would tell, the sisters said.

He'd recall having walked around a street corner, only to have a shell explode. Shrapnel hit his head and arm, and part of his leg was blown away.

But only recently, Ms. Chastain said, her father added that he and his comrades had to hide in a flooding basement from the Germans.

"He said when that happened in the basement, he said the 23rd Psalm," she said.

Mr. Chastain, who once served as national commander of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, devoted much of his time to helping his fellow veterans.

"When he retired from DuPont, he said he had too much to do (for veterans) to go to work," Ms. Chastain said.

"He said he would always worry for people who couldn't fight for themselves for benefits, or didn't know they were eligible."

He and his wife began a program called Operation Buddy nearly 30 years ago to bring veterans from the Augusta Veterans Affairs Uptown Division hospital to Mann Memorial United Methodist Church for a home-cooked meal and entertainment.

"He helped many people get the benefits they deserved," Ms. Chastain said.

Mr. Chastain's funeral will be held at 11 a.m. Monday at Thomas Poteet & Son Chapel. He will be buried Tuesday in his native Blairsville, in the mountains of northeast Georgia.

Reach Jeremy Craig at (706) 823-3409 or jeremy.craig@augustachronicle.com.