Mt. Bethel's 'We Will Never Forget'

A full house gathered at  in East Cobb on Sunday to pay tribute to military veterans and public safety first responders during a Memorial Day holiday weekend musical commemoration. 

The Patriotic 2011 Orchestra, the iPraise 2011 Patriotic Singers, and Mount Bethel's Chancel Choir and Kingsmen singers were joined by soloists Robert McMichael and Kathy Wilkerson for a wide range of patriotic music.

Cobb police, fire and EMS first responders were honored, and the somber remembrances of America's fallen heroes took center stage, especially the recollections of five members of the New York Fire Department's Engine 54, Ladder 4, Battalion 9, which lost 15 men during the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, more than any other rescue unit.

That sacrifice, said firefighter Leonard Sieli, is proof that "the dream that is America cannot and will not be defeated."

World War II infantryman Robert Turpin, now 89, was another featured guest, and Mount Bethel's World II veterans were honored for their service: 

• John Baird
• Bob Eason
• Adrien Freeman
• Al Friel
• Chuck Gardner
• Hoyt Hunt
• John Hutto
• Luther Jones
• Charles Moore
• Clyde Payne
• Elmer Poole
• Bob Power
• Marion Sams
• Bob Turrentine
• Archie Yawn
• Bill Ziegler