print Veterans work to forge Honor Bell for Colorado Springs to bring healing (copy)
Vietnam veteran Larry Peterson finds healing in the solemn tones of a bronze bell tolled to honor Colorado veterans for the final time.
“The bell has been the best PTSD medicine I have had,” said Peterson, a member of the Honor Bell guard and an Honor Bell Foundation board member.
The first time he rang the 1,000-pound bell during a service on June 18, 2020, marked the anniversary of a loss during his deployment as an airmen when an AC-130 gunship was lost in 1972 during Vietnam.
As he rang the bell that day, he honored not only those being buried, but also those airmen who never came come.
“As I started tolling, the tears just flowed from my eyes,” he said.
At funerals for service members the bell can stand in for military honors or supplement them and so far its been shared between Fort Logan and the Pikes Peak National Cemetery. For grieving families, its been a welcome addition, he said. But it’s only available for Pikes Peak services two days a month.
Peterson and others are working on effort to raise money for Pikes Peak National Cemetery to have its own bell so it can be there for all the services. The effort has received about $100,000 toward its $330,000 fundraising goal to forge a new bell. When the local chapter of the Retired Enlisted Association closed down, it made the generous donation to the effort, he said.
He expects fundraising to get underway in earnest in the coming months and a group plans to meet at 10 a.m. Saturday at American Legion Post 209, 3613 Jeannine Drive to organize those efforts. The group has brought a new capital fundraising manager to lead the effort.
A fundraising dinner will also be held at 6 p.m. on March 29 at Post 209.
Once the money is raised, it will take about six months to forge a bell.
In the long term, the Honor Bell Foundation would like to see a bell forged for every national cemetery.
Those interested in donating to a new bell can give online at honorbell.org. Please note your donation should be set aside for the new bell.
Contact the writer at mary.shinn@gazettedev.gazette.com or (719) 429-9264.
The Honor Bell was tolled in September to remember those lost fighting for the United States during a Patriot Day ceremony at Mt. Carmel.
The Honor Bell is designed to give deceased veterans a final salute before they are interred.
