AURORA | Debby Anderson is waiting for the day when 22 letters will be etched on a glass panel in Aurora’s Springhill Park, proof that her son lived — and confirmation that her son died.
If enough money is raised to fund the project, the name Christopher “Doc” Anderson will be one of about 6,000 engraved on the Colorado Freedom Memorial, where visitors can remember soldiers of every war who were killed in action and called Colorado their home.
Christopher, a U.S. Navy hospital corpsman, died in a 2006 mortar fire attack in Iraq. His mother honored his request to bury his body in Arlington, Virginia. It was there, standing in uniform with his best friend one Memorial Day weekend, amid the headstones of soldiers who died before him, where he first began to recognize the magnitude of war.
But Christopher’s grave is 1,700 miles away from his mother’s Longmont home, and she yearns for a peaceful place nearby where she can look back on the honorable life her son led.
She says she joins thousands of mothers who feel the same.
“There are so many of us, and we’ve gotten to know each other over the years,” Debby said. “I see us five years, 10, 15, 20 years from now, the families we’ve gotten to know, we’ll all gather at that memorial and we’ll share our joys, sadnesses, our lives.”
The second incarnation of the memorial is planned for four acres of empty land at Springhill Park near East Sixth Avenue and North Telluride Street in Aurora and will be the first of its kind to commemorate every Colorado resident who died or went missing in each conflict since the Spanish-American War in 1898. Trees will surround the memorial, and the site will also include a shelter, rest rooms and a kiosk where families can find where a name on the memorial is located.
The idea for the memorial has been in the works for more than a decade, spearheaded by Aurora resident Rick Crandall, a U.S. Air Force veteran and radio show host.
Originally, the plan was to construct the memorial on a two-acre parcel of land that will eventually become a park near East Alameda Avenue and Airport Boulevard. But the city’s park and recreation officials said funding for the park hasn’t been appropriated yet, so plans for the memorial were relocated to a park that is already in existence.
“It’s really going to be a very special place, really peaceful, really reflective,” Crandall said.
The proximity of the newly renovated Beck Recreation Center will also be beneficial for the project. Families will be able to rent out space at Beck for commemoration ceremonies, Crandall said.
The cost of the endeavor has decreased over the years as the cost of construction has plummeted. What was originally going to be a $2 million project will now cost about $750,000. Crandall has raised about half of the money so far, and he’ll host an all-day Colorado Freedom Memorial fundraiser on May 25 at Dry Dock Brewery, in a final push to raise the remaining balance.
Crandall came up with the idea to honor the Colorado soldiers in 2000, but during the past decade, several challenges hindered the project’s progress. After 9/11, plans fell by the wayside as the nation was grieving and at the same time gearing up to go to war, Crandall said. The plans were postponed for a few years and then the economy tanked, inhibiting people from donating money.
He hopes the revised plan for the Colorado Freedom Memorial will spur action.
When the memorial is complete, he says it will serve as a testament to the costs of war and also become a place of healing for mothers like Debby who have lost sons and daughters in combat.
“There’s a lot of moms who have lost sons in Iraq and Afghanistan whose biggest fear is that nobody will remember that their son lived, or won’t remember that their son died serving their country and protecting everybody’s freedom, ” he said.
Once it’s complete, it’ll be just one more attraction in the arsenal of tourist spots in the city, said Gary Wheat, executive director of Visit Aurora, the city’s nonprofit destination tourism organization.
“In addition to honoring the sacrifice, which is ultimately what this is about, it does give us an attraction that draws people in,” Wheat said.
Aurora’s ties to the military with Buckley Air Force Base make it the most appropriate place for this kind of memorial, he said.
Although the project has been held up for years, Debby says now is the right time for the community to work toward its completion.
The Iraq war is over, and the war in Afghanistan is nearing its end, but observances for the people who fought and died in those wars will also cease in a few years, she said.
“There will be future wars and future conflicts,” she said. “But our ceremonies are going to slow down and they’ll diminish to the point where they will be no longer, so the Colorado Freedom Memorial will be our gathering place.”
Reach reporter Sara Castellanos at 720-449-9036 or sara@aurroasentinel.com.