The dramatic black-and-gold mural rapidly taking shape by the Three Rivers Mall food court catches shoppers' eyes and pulls them back for a good, long stare.

Today that may be because shoppers are trying to figure out what the mural's final form will be. But by the time it's finished and dedicated May 25, perhaps passersby will stop for a different reason --- to reflect on the sacrifices others have made and are making for this country.

That was the goal of Patti Kelley, the mall's marketing manager, when she called Mothers of Military Support (MOMS) in late March. Three Rivers Mall administrators wanted to find a creative way to remind people to support their troops, she said.

"We certainly don't have to agree about the war, but we must support our troops," Kelley said Tuesday.

Designed by 65-year-old Bill Campitelle of Las Vegas, the "Bells of Remembrance" mural honors veterans of each of the 10 wars the United States has fought, beginning with the Revolutionary War.

Tim Leach, a 40-year-old Longview resident who hopes to start his own art company, has been painting Campitelle's design free-hand on the wall nearly every day after work. Mall maintenance workers prepped the wall for Leach, and Home Depot donated the paint.

"In one graphic, it honored them all," said MOMS founder Elizabeth Johnston, a Kelso resident whose son was in the first wave of Marines that went to Iraq in 2003. "I don't think we show our appreciation enough for any of them. ... They deserve all the recognition and all the appreciation we can give. This is just our way of being able to do that." Campitelle, who offered to be MOMS' marketing manager after stumbling across MOMS' Web site, adapted the Bells of Remembrance silhouette design from another design he'd created in color on his computer.

"Words come and go, but images, they stick in your mind," Campitelle said. He got the idea for the 10 bells, he said, after reading a newspaper article about a man who entered a city library with a bell. The man said he would ring the bell once every minute for every soldier who died in Iraq, Campitelle said.

For the wall adjacent to the 10 bells, Campitelle created a design that incorporates a poem written by his friend, Sarge Lintecum, a Vietnam combat veteran. The last stanza reads, "The bells of remembrance/ Ring once for every war/ For all the fallen soldiers,/ When will they ring no more?"

As a Vietnam War veteran, Campitelle knows firsthand how important public support is for military personnel. The former Army staff sergeant still chafes at the memory of the day he returned to the states in uniform following his tour of duty in Vietnam. When he walked up to a counter at the airport to buy candy, a woman spit on him.

"Any time I hear anybody talk anything against the veterans, it's very upsetting to me," Campitelle said. "These guys volunteered to do a job, and they're ordered to do things. I didn't want to go. That was my duty to go. I wish people could understand that."

The walls will be dedicated May 25 by Kelso Mayor Don Gregory during a 4 to 6 p.m. open house at Three Rivers Mall.

Everyone is welcome, "and we'd truly love to see the veterans and their families there to be a part of it," Johnston said.

Bells of Remembrance

© Sarge Lintecum 2007

http://www.vietnamblues.com

The bell rang out for our forefathers

And they fought the Revolutionary War

To free ourselves from tyranny

We heard the cannon’s roar

Next came the War of Eighteen Twelve,

Then the Civil War began,

Where North and South were rent apart

Over the slavery of man

Then we fought the Spanish

In eighteen ninety-eight

And World War I came after

With mustard gas and hate

For World War II the bell would ring

And for the Korean War after that

And then came Vietnam

Where a soldier was a boonie rat

The Persian Gulf, Afghanistan

And then into Iraq

You could hear the bell ring clearly

Through the roadside bomb attack

The Bells of Remembrance

Ring once for every war

For all the fallen soldiers,

When will they ring no more?

The Gettysburg Address
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19, 1863

  Bell 1 revolutionary War (1775-1783) 4,435 Veterans Lost there lives

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

  Bell 2 War of 1812 (1812-1815) 2,260 Veterans Lost there lives

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.

  Bell 3 Civil War (1861-1865) 623,026 Veterans Lost there lives

We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live.
Bell 4 Spanish-American War (1898) 2,446 Veterans Lost there lives
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

  Bell 5 World War I (1917-1918) 116,708 Veterans Lost there lives

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground.

  Bell 6 World War II (1941-1945) 407,316 Veterans Lost there lives

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract.

  Bell 7 Korean War (1950-1953) 36,914 Veterans Lost there lives

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.

  Bell 8 Vietnam War (1964-1973) 58,169 Veterans Lost there lives

It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us --

  Bell 9 Persian Gulf War (1991) 269 Veterans Lost there lives

that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion --

  Bell 10 Afghanistan Iraqi Freedom (2003-2006) 3,000+Veterans Lost there lives

that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom --

  Bell 11 (not yet seen) Enters stage, 3 in firemens hats with that of flag posing the famous
911 photo
Final pharse
and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
end
Sign "yet not seen" is turned over with the words "Never Forget"

Preview future cards Future Gift Card Designs Click Here

Created by MOMS for MOMS Because we support our Veterans. You will not find these commemorative cards anywhere  else, collect them now!

Program
Honor Guard Entrance (3 minutes)
Prayer (2 minutes)
Pledge of Allegiance (1 minute)
National Anthem (3 minutes)
Mayor Don Gregory gives Dedication (5 minutes)
Gettysburg address (7 minutes)
Bells Of Remembrance poem by Sarge Lintecum (2 minutes)
Speakers and board
Introduction (9 minutes)
Closing Announcing Mark As member of board
'Old Military Bag' Mark Ensey