A service of the
Click here to subscribe

By Janet Thayer
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

When Capt. Charles “Chic” Burlingame was a boy, he would build planes from scrap lumber and dream about flying.

“His whole life, he wanted to be a pilot, a military pilot,” said his sister, New York resident Debra Burlingame, as she reminisced about the man who would lose his life in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

“As a kid, he would build model planes and hang them from his ceiling, staring up at them from his bed,” she said.

His goal of becoming a pilot led him to the U.S. Naval Academy and a career in the military after his graduation in 1971. He served as a naval aviator and stayed in the Reserves. He eventually began flying passenger planes and was a senior pilot for American Airlines.

“When it came to flying, he never said, ‘I’m going to work,’ or ‘I’m going to my job,’” Debra Burlingame said. “It was always, ‘I’m going flying.’”

So for Chic Burlingame, 51, it was not just another day of work the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. It was an opportunity to do what he wished to do his entire life — fly.

American Airlines Flight 77, piloted by Burlingame, was one of four jets hijacked by terrorists two years ago today. The plane crashed into the Pentagon where Chic once worked as a Reserve officer, killing all aboard and 125 in the Pentagon.

Twenty-four months after Burlingame’s death, Ron Petitt, a Loveland sculptor, has transformed a black-and-white photographic image of 6-year-old Chic Burlingame, holding a homemade plane, into a bronze sculpture titled “American Patriot.”

“As soon as I saw that picture, I knew I had to do it,” Petitt said. “I feel like I know him. His family has made me feel like I’m a part of them.”

Proceeds from sales of the tabletop-size sculpture will go toward the newly created Patriot Dreams Foundation in honor of Chic Burlingame. The foundation will award educational scholarships to young men and women who are interested in pursuing military careers, said Debra, who lives in Pelham Manor, N.Y.

The fourth stanza of “America the Beautiful” was the inspiration for the foundation’s name, she said.

“O beautiful for patriot dream
that sees beyond the years
thine alabaster cities gleam,
undimmed by human tears ... ”

“That was the song played at Chic’s funeral as they laid the flag over his casket,” Debra said. “That song really resonates with our family.”

One of Chic’s best friends came up with the idea for a statue.

“We had that photograph of Chic when he was 6 years old at his memorial service,” Debra said. “He thought it would be great to commission a sculptor to do a life-sized sculpture.”

Debra remembered that idea as a little ambitious and thought tabletop sculptures for friends and family members might be more realistic. She thought even members of the public might want to purchase a piece.

“We weren’t thinking about making money,” she said. “After Chic died, we heard from so many people throughout the country who really reached out to us. We thought they might like this.”

Money from the sales will go to a charity, she said.

“We wanted to do that all along,” Debra said. “We wanted to do something positive.”

Eventually, the idea evolved into a scholarship fund tied into public service, specifically military service with an emphasis on youths who can’t afford college. Not only did Chic serve 25 years in the military, his father, Charles, also served in the Navy.

“My father’s dream was to be a pilot,” Debra said. “He didn’t have a college education, but he had the aptitude.

“My dad came from a poor family of nine kids,” she said. “He would have been a perfect candidate for Patriot Dreams.”

Another thread to the scholarship lies with Sept. 11, 2001. Many of the servicemen killed in Iraq enlisted because of Sept. 11, Debra said.

“Our family is extremely grateful to those who put their lives on the line, whether it be Iraq or Afghanistan,” she said.

As the idea began to take shape, Debra came upon Petitt, the sculptor who would craft her brother’s likeness into bronze. A stop on the 101st Airborne Division Association Web site led Debra to a link to the work of Petitt, who specializes in military-themed pieces.

“I clicked on his site and just got a rush of emotion,” Debra said. “I almost started crying. I knew this was my guy. I knew this was meant to happen.”

Petitt was commissioned in 2001 to create a World War II sculpture honoring actor Tom Hanks and director Steven Spielberg for their work on “Saving Private Ryan” and HBO’s “Band of Brothers.”

“I love history, No. 1,” Petitt said. “There’s so many endless stories with the military.”

Also, Petitt served with the U.S. Army, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

“Not only was there this incredible talent in Ron, but he understands the military,” Debra said. “He is a soulful, soulful man, and it comes through in his work.”

Today, two years after her brother’s death, Debra is making the television network rounds to talk about Patriot Dreams, along with her brothers Brad Burlingame and Mark Burlingame.

She said the family tries not to think too much about how Chic died, but how he lived, while focusing on the foundation.

“It’s not about Sept. 11 or this one man or his career,” she said. “It’s about the future and the aspirations and the dreams of this country’s youth. It’s the dream of something bigger and better than yourself. Like that 6-year-old boy in the photo.”

Back to the top

By Dave Brendsel
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

City officials dropped plans to license city businesses after opposition from small-business owners mounted during the past week.

The Loveland City Council gave initial approval to the city’s first business license program Sept. 2. The program would have required every Loveland business owner to register with the city, pay a $10 fee and display a license at the business.

But at a study session Tuesday, City Manager Don Williams asked council members to kill a Sept. 16 final vote on the program. Several said they had heard grumbling from their business constituents and quickly agreed.

“I think it would be good to back off from that program,” Councilman Larry Heckel said.

Williams said the program was meant to help businesses, not hurt them. City officials wanted to gather information to analyze the city’s business demographics and market Loveland businesses to outside companies and each other.

But what started as an economic development tool for the city, he said, quickly turned into more bureaucratic red tape for business owners as council members added a $10 annual fee and began discussing penalties for those who failed to apply.

“It was never intended as regulatory,” Williams said.

The application asked for too much information, Williams admitted. Along with general business information, the city was asking for information about products, employees and emergency contacts.

Small-business owners told Williams they worried about the city sharing proprietary information with competitors. Others were simply concerned about the time involved in filling out yet another government form.

Councilman Walt Skowron, alone in voting against the program, said he had heard from many small-business owners who feared a limited licensing program would grow into something bigger, with high fees and onerous regulations.

The city should get the information it needs from organizations it supports, such as the Loveland Chamber of Commerce or the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp., Skowron said.

“That’s why we pay dues,” he said.

The city is investigating other, voluntary methods for gathering business information, Williams said.

Those methods could include a voluntary sign-up on the city’s Web site. One of the end products of the business license program popular with council members was to be an interactive Web site from which anyone could pull up information on city businesses. City officials will try to save that product while killing the program, Williams said.

Whatever method city officials decide on for gathering information will be business-friendly and without regulation, Williams said.

“It won’t be a license,” he said.

Back to the top

By Dave Brendsel
Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Larimer County’s petty criminals won’t be sleeping at the old fairgrounds after all.

But they will work there.

County Manager Frank Lancaster said Wednesday that county officials would no longer consider using the old fairgrounds on South Railroad Avenue as a jail for people sentenced to the county’s Workender Program.

“The citizens down there didn’t care for it,” Lancaster said.

The county will continue to use prisoners in the program to work at the fairgrounds, however. Prisoners have cleaned and painted there for years, he said. Now they will be used to take apart buildings and get the site ready for Loveland to take over.

Turning the fairgrounds into a jail proved to be too expensive and unpopular, he said. The county would have had to spend too much money housing, feeding and supervising prisoners whom Loveland residents didn’t want there in the first place, he said.

Ironically, he said, nearly half the prisoners Loveland residents were concerned about are their next-door neighbors — sentenced for such offenses as driving under the influence, domestic violence and what one county official called “generally stupid behavior.”

“The folks that everyone is concerned about living there on the weekend, 45 percent of them already live there Monday through Friday,” Lancaster said.

Loveland City Councilman Glenn Rousey, who sits on a special council fairgrounds subcommittee, said he wasn’t as concerned about the type of prisoners who would be housed there as much as he was about the county shutting off possible other uses there.

Councilman Walt Skowron, also a subcommittee member, was more direct about his opposition to prisoners at the fairgrounds. “Over my dead body,” he said shortly after the proposal was reported.

Lancaster said the idea was a trial balloon, floated by county officials to gauge residents’ support for an off-site facility for the popular prison program. Now that Loveland residents have popped that balloon, he said, the county will have to look elsewhere to relieve crowding at its Alternative Sentencing Unit.

There are more than 400 county criminals waiting to serve their two-day-a-week sentences there, some waiting as long as six months to pay their debt to society.

County officials are asking voters for a tax increase to fund expansion of the unit. In the meantime, they’ve looked at using the old fairgrounds, old motels, forest service camps or army tents to house the overflow.

But off-site facilities proved too expensive, even as a temporary fix, said Maj. Justin Smith, head of county detention. By the time health, food and payroll costs were added in, he said, even low- or no-cost locations turned expensive.

But Workenders prisoners have to be housed somewhere, Smith said. The innovative program, once the envy of other counties, has become less effective the more popular it gets, he said.

The percentage of prisoners completing the program has dropped from 92 percent to 82 percent in the past few years, he said. Those prisoners who don’t complete the work program usually end up in the county jail, which also is reaching capacity, Smith said.

“Swiftness is an important part of punishment,” Smith said.

Back to the top