Emily Bear's video: Coming Home - Stars Stripes a Salute to Our Veterans

Created especially for the Stars & Stripes, A Salute to our Veterans event, these video vignettes, with music by Emily Bear, include the first-hand accounts of Rockford-area veterans and their family members. On October 10, 2015, nearly 6,000 people gathered at the Stars & Stripes: A Salute to Our Veterans event in Rockford, Illinois to honor local veterans as well as the men and women currently serving in the United States Armed Forces. Highlights of the Stars & Stripes event included an address by General Colin L. Powell, USA (Ret.), performances by the Rockford Symphony Orchestra with the Mendelssohn Chorale and the debut of “The Bravest Journey”, an orchestral piece composed and performed by thirteen-year-old Rockford native, Emily Bear. We would like to thank the Veterans and family members of servicemen and servicewomen in the Rockford area who graciously shared their personal stories to create these videos: Donald Allen Henry C. Anderson, MD Franklin Beach Don Bein John Beuster Ann Boehlefeld Maj. Gen. John L. Borling, USAF (Ret.) Darrell Brenner, Jr. Robert Brenner Daryl Brown Kevin Byrnes Edwin Carlson, Sr. Robert Carlson James Connell Darrin Crossen Nathaniel Cutway Mary Kris Derry Patrick Derry Judy DiGiovanni John France Jim Frazier Jeff Frost Bruce Giersch James Gingrich Augustine Hernandez Jason Hill Vanessa Hobson John Howard, PhD Reginald Humphrey Charles Larson Maj. Tom McIntire, USAF (Ret.) Steve Merritt William Murphy Blake Musser Carol Nealan James Nealan John Paddock Allen Pang, DDS Al Patten Lolita Pettigrew Derrick Porter Raymond Porter Forest Price Robin Reit Effie Reyes Russell Stauffer Paul Wixom Virginia Wynn