I don't see Chaotic Good as worrying too much about defending the people in abstract. Personally I think that falls more into neutral and lawful goods. Chaotic good guys, to me, strike me as the sort that really want the people to do for themselves, but will get involved when there is no other choice. They'd rather focus on the evil they are fighting, which is how they help the people.
Exactly. A shield at low level, a something or another I haven't decided on yet at mid-levels, then a weapon at higher levels.
A village in the middle of nowhere is under threat of destruction by a rampaging horde of Zombies controlled by some necromancer trying ot make a kingdom of the dead. Two Paladins, unrelated, arrive to deal with the threat.
The Lawful Good Paladin is the guy who stands at the village gate, plants his feet and cries out 'You Shall Not Pass!', giving his life to defend the village.
The Chaotic Good Paladin tells the villagers to grab torches and pitchforks, see to their families and rides out into the night to find the necromancer and put him down, trusting the villagers to survive until he does.
But that could just be me.
Possibly.
I was looking at it from more of an urban perspective, as a sort of counter-balance to the LE guy, in some ways, but as a general agent of justice, as an aspect of fairness rather than actual legal dealings.
So, with the zombie village, the CG guy would rally the people, as you said, help them prepare a defense, assist in the zombie slaughter (as the villagers likely wouldn't survive on their own, and riding back to a town full of zombies is a bad idea), then ride off to deliver justice right to the heart of the evil necromancer. CG would probably only stick around until the villagers had the battle well in hand. Riding off and leaving them to their fate strikes me as rather CN.
I can even see the LG guy making an assessment that the village is but a cog in the grand scheme of things, and going straight for the necromancer as a blow for the greater good. "I shall pray for your village, and assist in any way I can after I smite this bastion of evil!", where the CG will feel that the villagers' lives are more important than the bad guy miles away, who can be dealt with later.