Area residents turned out Wednesday night to honor Vicksburg’s, Warren County’s and the state’s finest as the Vicksburg Homecoming Benevolent Club honored the area’s first responders.

Ninety-two people attended the club’s 34rd annual Officer of the Year Banquet at American Legion Post 213 to honor the nominees from the Vicksburg Police and Fire departments, Warren County Sheriff’s Office and Mississippi Highway Patrol.

“We shouldn’t take law enforcement or firefighters or troopers for granted just because they wear a badge,” Mayor George Flaggs Jr. said. “And the spouses and significant others and family members (of first responders), we thank you, too, because you make this sacrifice when they go out every night or every day to protect us, not knowing if they will return home.”

Flaggs said young people should look at first responders as role models.

“That badge is a badge of honor; it’s a badge of integrity; it’s a badge of respect; it’s a badge of dignity. It’s a badge you wear with pride.”

“I want to thank the Vicksburg Homecoming Benevolent Club for honoring our first responders,” Sheriff Martin Pace said. “I am proud of all the officers from the sheriff’s office, police department, fire department and the Highway Patrol. They are well deserving of the honor they received.”

Receiving awards were:

• Vicksburg police Sgt. Bobby Jones, a 17-year veteran of the police department and a watch commander.

• Sheriff’s deputy Cpl. Robert Taylor, a shift supervisor who has served two terms with the sheriff’s office, from 2005 to 2010, when he left to be police chief of Rolling Fork, and returning 2013. He has announced his retirement.

“He has been a professional peace officer and he will be missed,” Pace said.

• Vicksburg firefighter/paramedic Kimani Ratliff, a seven-year veteran of the fire department.

“He is very professional in everything he does and he is willing to go wherever we need him: fire truck, ambulance or rescue truck. He’s always in a good mood and always has a smile,” Fire Chief Craig Danczyk said.

• Trooper Sgt. John Minor, a 24-year veteran with the Mississippi Highway Patrol assigned to Warren County.

“At times you should be honored for doing your job well, and that’s the purpose for this banquet tonight; we’re going to honor the men and women of (public) safety for doing their job well, and for that we thank you,” Danczyk, who served as the program’s guest speaker, said.

“There are four things that will happen with 100 percent certainty in your career, and this is true whether you’re in law enforcement, fire service, EMT/paramedic,” he told the first responders:

• “No. 1, the experience gained in the fire service or law enforcement will change your life forever.”

Anyone, Danczyk said, who follows the path of a public safety career and had the privilege to serve others will find their lives changed.

• “No. 2, the training you receive in your career will change someone’s life forever.

“Throughout our careers we’re going to get training opportunities and we’re going to grow and to learn things, and we are going to have a positive effect on someone’s life at some point in our career, whether that’s a structure fire, a motor vehicle collision, medical emergency. Public safety will change someone’s life forever.”

• No. 3, “The hard work you put into your department will make it better, make our community better and make our organization better.”

• No. 4, “You will have an opportunity to make a positive difference in someone else’s professional career.

“With 23 years in the fire service, this is something I look forward to,” Danczyk said. “There’s so many chapters in our lives in public safety, but then you can also have a positive difference in somebody else’s career.

“Probably everybody in this room has had that experience if you’re in public safety; someone has had a positive effect on your career and has helped you along the way and got you where you are, and you will have a positive effect on someone else’s career.

“Thank you for doing your job well.”