A new meaning for Veterans Day

I know it's been a while, and I'll post an update sometime soon, but in the mean time, here's a story that ran today. Makes me see Veterans Day in a new light.
[Photo by Melissa Plantz]

Remembering our fallen heroes

The story behind Lone Tree Cemetery’s bench

By Kathrine Warren
Staff Reporter

Published: Friday, November 12, 2010 6:22 AM CST

Cemeteries have countless untold stories lurking behind each and every gravestone or bouquet of flowers. Telluride’s Lone Tree Cemetery is no different.

Teeming with history dating back to the first person buried there, 2-year-old Edwin Andrus, the cemetery has a more recent chapter in its book thanks to the generous donation of Richard “Red” Brown, of Norwood.

In the middle of the grounds sits a lone black metal bench, which offers visitors a moment to take in the sweeping views of Bear Creek and Ajax Peak and remember fallen heroes and veterans who served in the military.

Brown, a local welder and snowplow driver, was asked a few years ago by the American Legion to build a bench to honor those who have been killed in combat. Brown, both a member of the Legion and the Telluride Elks Lodge, took it as a chance to also honor his brother, who was killed in an Army helicopter crash at Fort Bragg, N.C. in the late 1970s.

He donated the material and time in exchange for his own artistic liberty, with the bench also paying homage to those who served in World War II, The Korean War and the Vietnam War.

It was dedicated on Memorial Day 2009, and Brown said “Everybody that’s ever seen it loves it.”

Floyd Woody, a fellow veteran from Norwood, drew the designs Brown had in mind, and John Story, with Water Jets West in Delta, cut out the details commemorating fallen heroes.

The back of the bench depicts a soldier with an M1 rifle on bended knee before three crosses. Those crosses represent Brown’s brother, Michael, and his father and uncle, who served in World War II and in Korea.

An Army helicopter flies above in memory of his brother’s tragic death.

“And on the other side, the American flag flies for all of us who have served and came home,” Brown said.

Both sides of the bench depict the Prisoner of War/Missing In Action insignia to commemorate another uncle who served in Vietnam.

Brown himself also served in the Army. It was a no-brainer to enlist considering his family history, however like many veterans, he prefers not to talk about it. This bench is about those who have fallen, and offers those who came home a place to sit and reflect.

“It’s the guys who serve and come home, no matter how we feel about the government or anything else, we’ve all fought for our country and served it,” he said. “That’s the best thing you can do.”

But the bench is also there for anyone else looking for a tranquil moment alone with his or her thoughts.

“Some pay the ultimate price, those are the ones we can’t forget,” Brown said. “People are welcome to come sit on it, bring a bottle, and toast our fallen heroes…It’s in a great spot, couldn’t be any place prettier.”