Prayer Vigil Remembers
'The Fallen'

The mood was somber, the air still in the state capitol building’s north rotunda and hands gripping tightly to tissue dabbed at tears as families, friends and fellow Georgians paid solemn tribute, Thursday, Aug. 18., 2005, to those have lost their lives in support of the global war on terror.

"Whether born in Georgia or some other place," Gov. Sonny Purdue said during the ceremony, "doesn’t matter."

“We’re proud of their courage, their love of country and their sense of duty,” he said.

More than 200 people, many of them representing the military, filled the main floor and floor above as clergy from different denominations, the governor and Mary Purdue offered their prayers and condolences to families whose sons, brothers, daughters, husbands, and wives have died protecting the rights and freedoms of others in an inhospitable land thousands of miles from home.

Abbey Stokely (right) of Griffin is comforted by family friend Melissa Sizemore during Gov. Sonny Purdue’s Prayer Vigil honoring Georgia’s fallen Soldiers in the rotunda of the state capitol in Atlanta, Thursday, Aug. 18, 2005. Stokely and the rest of her family came to honor her brother Spc. Michael Stokely, a scout with Griffin’s Troop E, 108th Cavalry, who died while deployed with Georgia’s 48th Brigade Combat Team in Iraq. (Georgia National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Roy Henry)

At times throughout the vigil, Purdue and many others could be seen saying their own silent prayers.

Stepping to the podium after prayers were offered up by Atlanta’s clerical community, Purdue addressed the families seated before him.

“We’re especially moved today to reach out in love those families that have lost a service member during this time of struggle,” he said. “And while we offer our prayers and condolences, we also know our words are small comfort in your grief.

“Yet we want you to know you don’t grieve alone,” he said, his voice wavering for a moment. “We’re here to offer you whatever hope and comfort we can.”

At one point during Thursday’s vigil, Sgt. Harry Childs, a trumpeter with the Georgia Army National Guard’s 116th Army Band, stood and played Taps for his fallen comrades. Although his melody never wavered, it wasn’t hard to see the sorrow in his face as he played.

While hundreds in the Capitol Rotunda listened to Childs and Atlanta's Clergy, in Iraq members of the 48th Brigade Combat Team halted their activities at 9 p.m. to observe a moment of silence along with their fellow Georgians. "People all over the state stopped to say a prayer for you," Brig. Gen. Stewart Rodeheaver told a reporter, "That's pretty powerful."

Before the ceremony ended the strains of Amazing Grace played on bagpipes filled the rotunda. And somewhere among the crowd a voice could be heard saying, “They will never die...they will always be remembered.”