Gathering gives military families support through grief

Gathering gives military families support through grief
May 2, 2009 - 4:39 PM
R. SCOTT RAPPOLD
THE GAZETTE
Robert Pirelli's pain was like a cancer, eating away at him, sapping his will to live.

Through a national nonprofit, the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, he has found the answers he needed about the death of his son, Staff Sgt. Robert R. Pirelli, 29, a Fort Carson Green Beret killed in Iraq in August 2007.

He's also found the comfort of knowing he is not the only one hurting.

"When you come to TAPS, people say, ‘I know what you're going through,' and they really do know what you're going through," Pirelli said.

He came to Fort Carson from Boston this weekend for a TAPS grief seminar, one of 150 widows and mothers, fathers and brothers, fellow soldiers and friends, who gathered to remember loved ones lost to war and to find support in each others' stories.

"It lets the families know their loved ones' sacrifice is remembered and their life made a difference," said Bonnie Carroll, who founded TAPS two years after the death of her husband, Brig. Gen. Tom Carroll, in a 1992 plane crash.

At the time, there was no support system in place for survivors to keep in touch with other military families and people who served with their lost loved ones. She and the families of other people lost in the crash got together on their own.

Ronnie Barrett came from Johnson City, Tenn, for the seminar. His son, Sgt. Chad Barrett, with Fort Carson's 3rd Brigade Combat Team, committed suicide in Iraq in February 2008.

For the father, coming here has been cathartic.

"I didn't realize until I got here there would be so many people with the same story I've got," he said.

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