Biography
Robert “Nashua” Chantal was an Americus, Georgia volunteer who provided housing assistance and worked with international youth groups. He crossed onto Fort Benning during the November 2004 School of the Americas Watch vigil and was sentenced to ninety days in federal prison and a $500 fine. He was released June 10, 2005. Chantal later returned to the annual protest and received another federal sentence after a 2012 line-crossing action.
Sources
Arrest and missing executed sentence/admission review October 13, 2026: Clare Hanrahan's original March 18 participant report dates Chantal's fence crossing and arrest to November 18, 2012 and his Columbus trial to March 13, 2013. It describes the actual six-month sentence and his being shackled and taken away immediately afterwards, with a current Lee County jail mailing address. The month-only arrest is refined and the missing sentencing and remand dates added. SOA Watch Austin independently records the actual September 11, 2013 release. The converted 181-day total is cleared while the documented six-month sentence is retained. The separate 2004 prosecution is unchanged; initial 2012 booking/release is not assumed continuous with the March 2013 remand.
The January 29, 2015 Fort Benning court report identifies Robert Norman Chantal, also known as Nashua, as pleading guilty and receiving five years of probation from Judge Stephen Hyles after the November 23, 2014 School of the Americas protest. Captain Corey McKinnon prosecuted. The prosecutor’s requested six months of imprisonment was not imposed; probation is not prison time.
Sources: Contemporary report.
The November 23, 2014 Fort Benning report individually recounts Chantal having actually completed three months of imprisonment in 2005 following the November 2004 action and six months in 2013 following the 2012 action. Those are source-reported completed month units, not converted ninety- or one-hundred-eighty-day measurements. The new 2014 arrest and possible future penalty are kept separate from those earlier completed terms.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister report 521.
