Effort took more than three years, nearly $150,000.
This season is busier than most for honor guards across the country, many of which are gearing up for Memorial Day services in addition to the military funerals they perform year-round.
The Memorial Rifle Squad of Fort Snelling National Cemetery in Minneapolis is heavily supported by American Legion Post 580 in nearby Chanhassen, including by post volunteers. One of these is the squad’s commander, Dick Middleton, who first joined in 2019 but has been familiar with the cemetery for much longer – and with an element that had fallen out of use.
A carillon is a bell system tuned to play harmonic music. The Fort Snelling carillon was installed in 1986, but an excavation mishap in 2003 cut the electrical line and the music fell silent. Over the years, even its purpose had been forgotten: “no one knew what that tower was,” Middleton says, “maybe a bat or bird refuge.”
But he knew, and says that at 2:33 a.m. on April 22, 2022, he woke up with a “calling” to repair it. He went to Post 580 Commander Glenn Anderson for permission to investigate what it would take to install a new system. “Finding out the cost was the easy part,” Anderson says. The first estimate was $130,000.
So Middleton, and the post, got to work. One immediate hurdle was the fact that as a national cemetery, Fort Snelling is run by the federal National Cemetery Administration (NCA). While individuals at the cemetery tried their best to be helpful, months would sometimes elapse between responses to questions posed by the post. Middleton says he learned patience and endurance; his faith grew in the three-plus years it took just to get permission to get the carillon working again.
The logistics of gathering and deploying donations also had to be managed. Not many entities met the requirements for donating and holding money, but the post did because of its tax-exempt status. Between them (to the tune of $25,000), the Minnesota Veterans 4 Veterans Trust Fund and individual donors, the final cost of $149,000 was met. Middleton says he made “a lot” of speeches, and credits his wife with writing thank-you notes and editing his responses. She is now buried at Fort Snelling.
The new carillon system was recognized on Aug. 27, 2025, but in one more bureaucratic hurdle, it took another six months to place the plaque recognizing the donors due to the need to change a single word. The plaque is up now, however, in time for Memorial Day. Anderson says the carillon plays every day of the year, and the families of recently buried veterans have been very appreciative of it. And Middleton says of the patriotic music, “It’s been a pleasure to hear it and to be a part of it.”
- Honor & Remembrance