HILL AIR FORCE BASE -- World War II veteran James Chastain rang the bells at noon on Independence Day at the Hill Aerospace Museum chapel and the sound echoed across the world.
Chastain chimed 13 times in honor of the original states that the signers of the Declaration of Independence represented.
"The bells rang in Philadelphia at two o'clock in 1776 on the Fourth of July," said Kit Workman, state president of the Utah chapter of the Air Force Association, and 2 p.m. Eastern time corresponds to noon in Utah.
"Since 1963, that's been happening at U.S. installations and properties around the world, so when we ring our bells here, they're going to be ringing at Independence Hall, they'll be ringing at the National Cathedral in Washington D.C., at Arlington Cemetery, at Navy ships around the world," Workman said.
Douglas McGregor, state society president of the Utah chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, and Layton Mayor Steve Curtis spoke at the ceremony, which included a performance by the Bell Tones Choir from the First United Methodist Church.
McGregor said the Founding Fathers believed inalienable human rights came from God, not governments.
"Government exists to protect and defend those rights and ensure that the citizens have a government that will support them in the pursuit of life and liberty and happiness," McGregor said. "The 10 Amendments, very similar to the 10 Commandments, are 'thou shalt nots' for our government. Thou shalt not create any laws that would interfere with the freedom of religion, the freedom of speech, the freedom of the press and the other amendments that were given in what we call the Bill of Rights."
Workman said attendance at the ceremony was down this year because July 4 fell on a Sunday. The event usually averages between 30 and 70 people.
"It's the history of the event that makes it important, rather than if we have a big audience or a small audience," he said.
The bell ringing ceremony began at Hill about 13 years ago and the Northern Utah chapter of the Air Force Association has sponsored it for around 10 years, Workman said.
Chastain enlisted before World War II and served "28 years, 10 months and seven days" in the Army Air Corps and the Air Force before deciding he didn't want to make a career out of it, he jokes. Now, he is a tour guide and calls himself the "chapel ding-a-ling."
He has been proudly ringing the bells for the national bell-ringing ceremony for the last eight years.
"I certainly enjoy it," he said. "I learned patriotism at an early age and at 91, it hasn't disappeared. I still feel good about it. My feeling is for those people who are not here who I knew, that got lost in Bataan, I've got a plaque there (at the museum chapel) for my high school buddy who went to West Point. He was leading a flight of three on a navigational mission. One of them went into a thunderhead, he went after him. The kid came out but Bill didn't. He was 25 years old at that time."
Chastain himself just missed being sent to Bataan in the Philippines, where thousands of U.S. and Filipino prisoners died or were mistreated.
Curtis read a poem by an unknown author about the sacrifices veterans make for their country.
"I have a son (Riley) who fought in Iraq with the Army for a year," Curtis said. "He's back home, but the idea that there are those that are willing to take upon them the opportunity to preserve my freedom and have done so since my birth, if it wasn't for them, I probably wouldn't be here or the circumstances would be substantially different."
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