Members of the West Georgia Veterans Council, along with local veterans and their families, gathered Monday morning at Meadoway Gardens to honor, remember and celebrate those who lost their lives while serving their country.

The sound of freedom rang, and a sense of pride filled the cemetery as guest speaker Lt. Col. Manuel Zepeda, United States Marine Corps, spoke on why remembering Memorial Day is vitally important.

“To live under a banner of freedom and liberty,” Zepeda said. “Now, when we speak about service and sacrifice it’s not something that is exclusive to the military. Today, we all can agree that service and sacrifice extend to police, firefighters and many other servants within and amongst our community that serve to protect to ensure our freedoms, our liberties. Thus, each and every one of us that are gathered here today are here because we are [someone who served] or we know, or we were [related] to somebody who pledged allegiance to the Star-Spangled Banner.”

Zepeda not only thanked those who sacrificed their lives to pay for peace, but said that it will never go in vain or be forgotten. He went on to tell the crowd that there is a time for everything.

“To each and every one of them, today we say thank you,” Zepeda said. “As it is written, there is a time for everything under sun. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to uproot. A time to kill and a time to heal … there has always been a time for war, there is always a time for peace. And today my fellow Americans, it is a time to remember. It is a time to remember all those who have gone before us and added to the legacy of this great nation. To each of you, thank you. For many of the people who have gone before us, who have gone and given their all, who have gone but never fully returned, thank you. We remember.”

The people in the crowd were charged to never forget and always remember that this sacrifice is the reason they can gather and enjoy the “fruits of freedom.”

“We must not take this liberty and freedom for granted,” Zepeda said.

To close the ceremony, leaders from each veteran organization laid a wreath on one fallen soldiers’ grave.