Soil was brought from foreign grave sites to commemorate Coloradan soldiers buried overseas.
“The fallen of Colorado find a home’s embrace,” said Rick Crandall, president of the Colorado Freedom Memorial.
In honor of Memorial Day, the Colorado Remembers ceremony May 27 at Springhill Community Park featured music, presentations from the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard and Drill Team, and the 10th Mountain Division, as well as the ceremonial soil presentation.
“It was very moving,” said Jack Patterson, of Aurora. “This is just nice to be part of.”
The soil was retrieved from eight countries where Coloradan soldiers were buried after battle: France, England, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Tunisia and the Philippines. Crandall explained that during times like the Great Depression, some families weren’t able to afford to bring their loved one’s body home for a proper burial. Instead, they opted to have them buried where they died.
Cindy Wadsley, a friend of Crandall’s who was at the ceremony, said she’d heard of the plans involving the foreign soil beforehand, when Crandall related to her the struggle of getting it through customs and into Colorado.
Wadsley said it was worth it.
“(The soil presentation) was amazing,” she said. “It was difficult to get through, though. That’s when I started to cry.”
The soil will be mixed with homegrown Colorado dirt and placed at the memorial.
Crandall said the Colorado Freedom Memorial is the first monument in Colorado to commemorate all fallen veterans from all wars, ranks and branches together. Half of the soldiers named at the memorial, he added, were lost in battle and never made it home.
For Crandall, the soil and the ceremony was representative of returning some of those soldiers to where they belong.
“They’ve finally come back home,” he said.