Those Who Serve

Cadet Chapel
Chapel soaring over the dorms and classrooms.
Pews
Stained glass ceiling
More stained glass
Open space in the middle of the campus buildings.

Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial
A rubbing of Jeremy Charles Labella's name.

"Somewhere Everyday"
Boots and helmet for all the fallen.

On our last day in Colorado Springs we toured the United States Air Force Academy and the Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial. The academy, which was constructed in the 1950's, is the newest of the service schools. The most striking building is the Cadet Chapel that soars above the rest of the campus like a formation of jets taking off. All of the remaining dorms and classrooms, which surround a large open space, are only a couple stories high with long low lines that blend with the prairie to the east in contrast to the chapel that rises like the Rockies to the west. Everything in the chapel is related to flight with the triangular design drawing your eyes upward. The ends of the pews look like propellers and the tops of the pew backs look like the leading edge of a wing. The stained glass windows throughout the chapel are beautiful.

The Fallen Fire Fighters Memorial lists the names of all firemen from the US and Canada who died in the line of duty since 1976 when FEMA began tracking the deaths nationally. There are three sculptures and two walls with the names of the fallen listed by year. The names of the New York fire fighters who died on 9/11 requires eight columns. Also listed on the wall is the name of Jeremy Charles Labella, a Washington, PA fireman who died in 2007. One of the sculptures depicting a fire fighter carrying a baby down a ladder is entitled "Somewhere Everyday." The others show a grieving fire fighter and the empty boots and helmet. The names on the memorial are similar to the Vietnam Memorial in that people were looking for names of someone they knew. Both of these places make you realize there are always people who go above and beyond to serve us all.