Arkansas is home to seven CCJ Top 250 fleets, but it’s Calhoun – the world-travelled son of an Air Force tech sergeant – who stands shoulder-to-shoulder and top-of-mind with trucking in the Natural State.
Born in Searcy, Arkansas, Calhoun would spend his formative years wherever the Air Force sent his family, which included a stint at Wheelus Air Base in Tripoli, Libya, where he got a front row seat for the outbreak of the Six-Day War – one of the many conflicts that compile the Arab-Israeli wars.
“June of 1967,” Calhoun recalled, “the only time I ever remember seeing my dad with a service pistol, and he slept with it then. They tried to keep me occupied. I got my birthday presents early just so I wasn't too concerned about what was going on. And then the next morning when we got up, I remember on our drive to the base we drove by what at that time was Prince Gaddafi's Palace, and I remember very well there being tanks and troops stationed around the palace. And then, when we got to the base, they had taxied a jet up to the main gate. That was going to be their armament if anybody tried to crash the gate.”
The Calhouns – minus dad – left Libya briefly for Spain before returning to Des Arc, Arkansas en route back to Tripoli – blocks away from the Mediterranean Sea – and, eventually, Malmstrom Air Force Base in Great Falls, Montana, just in time for Kenneth to start second grade.
“We literally went from being on the edge of the Sahara Desert to Great Falls, Montana. And in the two weeks prior to our arrival, the mercury did not get above 40 below,” Calhoun said. “None of us even had coats at that point. So that was kind of a shock.”
By the early ‘70s, Kenneth was back in Des Arc while his father was on his final tour with the Air Force – this time in Vietnam. The Calhoun patriarch kicked off civilian life joining Kenneth's uncle at a boat factory in Delhi, Louisiana, as the company’s superintendent of transportation.
