Biography

Major General Chester Earl McCarty was born in Pendleton, Oregon, in 1905. His family moved to Portland, Oregon, in 1911. He joined the National Guard in 1921, while he was still in high school, and 1929 he transferred to the U.S. Army field artillery branch. He and Julia Caroline Gromoff were married in 1926; they had no children. He attended Northwestern College of Law, graduating in 1929. He became an attorney with Gleason, Scarborough, McNeese, O'Brien & Barnes in Portland. He was also assistant attorney general of Oregon from 1930 to 1936. He was elected state senator in 1942, but resigned that same year when he was called to active duty during World War II. After the war, he returned to his law practice in Portland, and also served on the Port of Portland Commission. He was called to active duty again in 1951 and he served in the Air Force during the Korean War. Though he wanted to return to his law practice after the end of that war, he accepted command of the 18th Air Force in 1954. He continued to serve in the military until he was able to retire in 1966, having achieved the rank of major general. He died in 1999.

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