Sen. John Barrasso seeks to keep Bells of Balangiga in Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - Sen. John Barrasso is pushing legislation that would require congressional approval to move the Bells of Balangiga from F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne.

The Wyoming Republican last week succeeded in getting the U.S. Senate to include an amendment to a defense bill that requires congressional authorization to move war memorials overseas.

Fellow Sen. Mike Enzi co-sponsored the amendment.

Three church bells were seized from the Philippines in 1901 by U.S. troops who put down a Filipino insurgency in which 46 U.S. troops were killed.

Two bells are kept at the Cheyenne air base while a third bell is with a U.S. Army regiment in South Korea.

Filipinos revere the bells as symbols of their long struggle for independence and want the bells returned.

Read more: The Billings Gazette