VETERANS DAY: Backers say local vets cemetery closer than ever

The Army calls the way station to the “great beyond” Fiddler’s Green, a place where veterans can stop and chat with their comrades.

That’s the kind of place retired Army Col. Victor Fernandez has been fighting for for more than a dozen years — a piece of ground where veterans can gather in death as they might have in life.

And with a recent U.S. House move to approve legislation mandating a veterans cemetery for southern Colorado, the final resting place envisioned by the two-tour veteran is closer than ever to reality.

“We absolutely must provide a proper burial for these heroes,” Fernandez said recently. “It’s time to get on with it.”

Fernandez took up the cemetery issue in the late 1990s when serving as head of a local group for retired military officers. He’s faced a red-tape nightmare that has turned a simple idea into years of battle.

“Lesser people would have gotten discouraged quite a while ago,” said Brian Binn, president of military affairs for the Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Fernandez said the need for a veterans’ burial place is real.

Colorado Springs is home to five military bases and has a massive population of veterans and military retirees — an estimated 75,000 in 2000 and growing every year. The nearest national cemetery is at Fort Logan, in southwest Denver.

Fernandez wanted a cemetery built quickly, so the veterans of World War II, including his father-in-law, retired Maj. Cecil Shields, would have a final resting place in the shadow of Pikes Peak.

“We thought it would just take a couple of years,” he said. “Boy, were we wrong.”

The federal Department of Veterans Affairs has been bombarded with requests for cemeteries in recent years. It has countered with strict guidelines, setting a 75-mile rule that rendered Colorado Springs too close to Denver to get a burial ground of its own.

The Pikes Peak Veterans Cemetery Committee, led by Fernandez, argued that Denver may seem close, but traffic and winter weather make it too far for families to be expected to drive.

Fernandez enlisted help from Pueblo, Cañon City and other southern Colorado towns where veterans covet a cemetery. He pulled strings in Congress, getting Colorado’s federal lawmakers to support the plan.

Fernandez sees the cemetery as more than a storehouse for the dead. He sees it as a field of honor and a place people can take their children to learn that liberty is earned by blood.

The House vote earlier this month, driven by Colorado Reps. Doug Lamborn and John Salazar coupled with support from Colorado’s senators, has backers of the cemetery thinking success is near.

“There’s every expectation it will get through the Senate as well,” Binn said.

Sen. Michael Bennet released a statement calling for quick progress in his chamber.

“It’s time to ensure a grateful nation keeps its promise to our troops from the day they enlist to the day they’re laid to rest,” he said.